Toxemia Explained, J.H. Tilden

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Introduction to Toxemia

THE medical world has built an infinite

literature without any (except erroneous and vacillating) ideas of

cause. Medicine

is rich in science, but now, as well as in all past time, it suffers

from a dearth

of practical ideas. The average doctor is often educated out of all the

common-sense

he was born with. This, however, is not his fault. It is the fault of

the system.

He is an educated automaton. He has facts--scientific facts

galore--without ideas.

Ford has mechanical facts--not more, perhaps, than thousands of other

mechanics,

but he joined them to an idea which made him a multimillionaire.

Millions have facts,

but no ideas. Thousands of doctors have all the scientific data needed,

but they

have not harnessed their science to common-sense and philosophy.

Without a clear conception of cause,

cure must remain the riddle that it is.

The late Sir Mackenzie--while

living, the greatest clinician in the world--declared: "In medical

research

the object is mainly the prevention and cure of disease." If cause is

not known,

how is prevention or cure possible--as, for example, by producing a

mild form of

smallpox or other so-called disease by poisoning a healthy person by

introducing

into his body the pathological products of said disease? Certainly only

pathological

thinking can arrive at such conclusions. Vaccines and autogenous

remedies are made

from the products of disease, and the idea that disease can be made to

cure itself

is an end-product of pathological thinking. This statement is not so

incongruous

after we consider the fact that all search and research work to find

cause by medical

scientists has been made in dead and dying people. As ridiculous as it

may appear,

medical science has gone, and is still going, to the dead and dying to

find cause.

If prevention and cure mean producing

disease, surely prevention and cure are not desirable. If prevention

can be accomplished,

then cures will not be needed.

At the time of his death, Mackenzie

was laboring to discover prevention. A more worthy work can not be

imagined. But

the tragedy of his life was that he died from a preventable diseases he

could have

cured the disease that killed him if his conception of cause had been

in line with

the Truth of Toxemia--the primary cause of all disease.

In spite of Mackenzie's ambition to

put the profession in possession of truth concerning prevention and

cure, he died

without a correct idea of even in what direction to look for this

desirable knowledge'

as evidenced by such statements as: "Our problems being the prevention

of disease,

we require a complete knowledge of disease in all its aspects before we

can take

steps to prevent its occurrence." There is the crux of the whole

subject. It

is not disease; it is cause "in all its aspects" that we need to know

before

we can take steps to prevent "disease." Mackenzie stated the following

concerning diagnosis:

But it appears to be unlikely that in the

present state of medicine there would be any great dissimilarity in the

proportions of diagnosed and undiagnosed eases in many series of

investigation such as we have made. The proportion depends, not on the

skill or training of individual practitioners, but on the

unsatisfactory state of all medical knowledge. The similarity of the

statistical records from the institute and from private practice goes

far to support this view. In spite of the additional time given at the

institute to the examination of cases which are undiagnosable in

general practice, and the assistance given by the special

departments--clinical groups--in their investigation, they remain

profoundly obscure, although we know that it is from among them that

there will gradually emerge the cases of advanced organic disease and

the end-results which form so large a proportion of the inmates of

hospital wards. And the tragedy is that many of them suffer from no

serious disabilities, and might, but for our ignorance, be checked on

their downward course.

Isn't this about as sharp a criticism

of medical inefficiency as Tilden has ever made?

This brings vividly to mind the statement,

made only a short time ago, by Dr. Cabot, of Boston, that he himself

was mistaken

in his diagnoses about fifty per cent of the time--that he had proved

it by post-mortems.

Such a statement as this, coming from a man of his standing, means

much. To me it

means that diagnosis is a meaningless term; for, as used, it means

discovering what

pathological effects--what changes--have been brought about by an

undiscovered cause.

Diagnosis means, in a few words, discovering effects which, when found,

throw no

light whatever on cause.

Again I quote Mackenzie: "The

knowledge of disease is so incomplete that we do not yet even know what

steps should

be taken to advance our knowledge." This being true, there is little

excuse

for laws to shut out or prevent cults from practicing less harmful

palliations. How

many reputable physicians have the honesty of Sir Mackenzie ?

In spite of Mackenzie's high and worthy

ambitions, he could not get away from the profession's stereotyped

thinking. The

early symptoms of disease he declared held the secret of their cause,

and he believed

an intense study of them would give the facts. But functional

derangements are of

the same nature and from the same universal cause that ends in all

organic so-called

diseases. All so-called diseases are, from beginning to end, the same

evolutionary

process.

The study of pathology--the study of

disease--has engaged the best minds in the profession always, and it

surely appears

that the last word must have been spoken on the subject; but the great

Englishman

believed, as all research workers believe, that a more intense and

minute study of

the early symptoms of disease will reveal the cause. There is, however,

one great

reason why it cannot, and that is that all

symptom-complexes--diseases--from their

initiation to their ending, are effects, and the most intense study of

any phase

or stage of their progress will not throw any light on the cause.

Cause is constant, ever present, and

always the same. Only effects, and the object on which cause acts,

change, and the

change is most inconstant. To illustrate: A catarrh of the stomach

presents first

irritation, then inflammation, then ulceration, and finally induration

and cancer.

Not all cases run true to form; only a small percentage evolve to

ulcer, and fewer

still reach the cancer stage. More exit by way of acute food-poisoning

or acute indigestion

than by chronic diseases.

In the early stages of this evolution

there are all kinds of discomforts: more or less attacks of

indigestion, frequent

attacks of gastritis--sick stomach and vomiting. No two cases are

alike. Nervous

people suffer most, and some present all kinds of nervous

symptoms--insomnia, headaches,

etc. Women have painful menstruation and hysterical symptoms--some are

morose and

others have epilepsy. As the more chronic symptoms appear, those of the

lymphatic

temperament do not suffer so much. As the disease progresses, a few

become pallid

and develop pernicious anemia, due to gastric or intestinal ulceration

and putrid

protein infection; in others the first appearance of ulcer is

manifested by a severe

hemorrhage; others have a cachexia and a retention of food in the

stomach, which

is vomited every two or three days, caused by a partial closing of the

pylorus. These

are usually malignant cases.

To look upon any of these symptom-complexes

as a distinct disease, requiring a distinct treatment, is to fall into

the diagnostic

maze that now bewilders the profession and renders treatment chaotic.

It should be known to all discerning

physicians that the earliest stage of organic disease is purely

functional, evanescent,

and never autogenerted so far as the affected organ is concerned, but

is invariably

due to an extraneous irritation (stimulation, if you please), augmented

by Toxemia.

When the irritation is not continuous, and toxin is eliminated as fast

as developed,

to the toleration point, normal functioning is resumed between the

intervals of irritation

and toxin excess.

For example: a simple coryza (running

at the nose--cold in the head), gastritis or colonitis. At first these

colds, catarrahs,

or inflammations are periodic and functional; but, as the exciting

cause or causes--local

irritation and Toxemia--become more intense and continuous, the mucous

membranes

of these organs take on organic changes, which are given various names,

such as irritation,

inflammation, ulceration, and cancer. The pathology (organic change)

may be studied

until doomsday without throwing any light on the cause; for from the

first irritation

to the extreme ending--cachexia--which may be given the blanket term of

tuberculosis,

syphilis, or cancer, the whole pathologic panorama is one continuous

evolution of

intensifying effects.

Germs and other so-called causes may

be discovered in the course of pathological development, but they are

accidental,

coincidental, or at most auxiliary--or, to use the vernacular of law, obiter

dicta.

The proper way to study disease is

to study health and every influence favorable or not to its

continuance. Disease

is perverted health. Any influence that lowers nerve-energy becomes

disease-producing.

Disease cannot be its own cause; neither can it be its own cure, and

certainly not

its own prevention.

After years of wandering in the jungle

of medical diagnosis--the usual guesswork of cause and effect, and the

worse-than-guesswork

of treatment, and becoming more confounded all the time--I resolved

either to quit

the profession or to find the cause of disease. To do this, it was

necessary to exile

myself from doctors and medical conventions; for I could not think for

myself while

listening to the babblings of babeldom. I took the advice found in

Matt. 6:6. According

to prevailing opinion, unless a doctor spends much time in medical

societies and

in the society of other doctors, takes postgraduate work, travels,

etc., he cannot

keep abreast of advancement.

This opinion would be true if the sciences

of medicine were fitted to a truthful etiology (efficient cause) of

disease. But,

since they are founded on no cause, or at most speculative and

spectacular causes,

as unstable as the sands of the sea, the doctor who cannot brook the

bewilderment

of vacillation is compelled to hide away from the voices of mistaken

pedants and

knowing blatherskites until stabilized. By that time ostracism will

have overtaken

him, and his fate, metaphorically speaking, will be that of the son of

Zacharias.

An honest search after truth too often,

if not always, leads to the rack, stake, cross, or the blessed

privilege of recanting;

but the victim, by this time, decides as did the divine Jew: "Not my

will, but

shine, be done;" or, as Henry declared: "Give me liberty or

give

me death!" The dying words of another great Irishman is the wish, no

doubt,

of every lover of freedom and truth:

That no man write my epitaph; for, as no man

who knows my motives dares now vindicate them. let not prejudice or

ignorance asperse them. Let them and me rest in peace, and my tomb

remain uninscribed, and my memory in oblivion, until other times and

other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her

place among the nations of the earth, then, and not until then, let my

epitaph be written. (Emmet).

The truth is larger than any man, and,

until it is established, the memory of its advocate is not important.

In the last

analysis, is not the truth the only immortality? Man is an incident. If

he discovers

a truth, it benefits all who accept it. Truth too often must pray to be

delivered

from its friends.

I must acknowledge that I have not

been very courteous to indifferent convention; and the truth I have

discovered has

suffered thereby. It has always appeared to me that the attention of

fallacy-mongers

cannot be attracted except by the use of a club or shillalah; and

possibly my style

of presenting my facts has caused too great a shock, and the desired

effect has been

lost in the reaction.

That I have discovered the true cause

of disease cannot be successfully disputed. This being true, my

earnestness in presenting

this great truth is justifiable.

When I think back over my life, and

remember the struggle I had with myself in supplanting my old beliefs

with the new--the

thousands of times I have suspected my own sanity--I then cannot be

surprised at

the opposition I have met and am meeting.

My discovery of the truth that Toxemia

is the cause of all so-called diseases came about slowly, step by step,

with many

dangerous skids.

At first I believed that enervation

must be the general cause of disease; then I decided that simple

enervation is not

disease, that disease must be due to poison, and that poison, to be the

general cause

of disease, must be autogenerated; and if disease is due to an

autogenerated poison.

what is the cause of that autogeneration? I dallied long in endeavoring

to trace

disease back to poison taken into the system, such as food eaten after

putrescence

had begun, or from poisoning due to the development of putrescence

after ingestion.

In time I decided that poisoning per se is not disease. I observed

where poisoning

did not kill; some cases reacted and were soon in full health, while

others remained

in a state of semi-invalidism. I found the same thing true of injuries

and mental

shock. It took a long time to develop the thought that a poisoned or

injured body,

when not overwhelmed by Toxemia. would speedily return to the normal,

and when it

did not, there was a sick habit--a derangement of some kind--that

required some such

contingency to bring it within sense-perception.

To illustrate: An injury to a joint

is often complicated with rheumatism; the rheumatism previous to the

injury was potentially

in the blood.

Just what change had taken place in

the organism which, under stress of injury or shock of any kind, would

cause a reaction

with fever I could not understand until the Toxemic Theory suggested

itself to my

mind, after which the cause of disease unfolded before me in an easy

and natural

manner. And now the theory is a proved fact.

After years of perplexing thought and

"watchful waiting," I learned that all disease, of whatever nature, was

of slow development; that without systemic preparation even so-called

acute systemic

diseases could not manifest.

In a few words: Without Toxemia there

can be no disease. I knew that the waste-product of metabolism was

toxic, and that

the only reason why we were not poisoned by it was because it was

removed from the

organism as fast as produced. Then I decided that the toxin was

retained in the blood,

when there was a checking of elimination. Then the cause of the

checking had to be

determined. In time I thought out the cause. I knew that, when we had a

normal nerve-energy,

organic functioning was normal. Then came the thought that enervation

caused a checking

of elimination. Eureka! The cause of all so-called diseases is found!

Enervation

checks elimination of the waste-products of metabolism. Retention of

metabolic toxin--the

first and only cause of disease!

Those who would be freed from the bondage

of medical superstition should study "Toxemia Explained."

-- Peace be with you,

Don "Quai" Eitner

"Spirit sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, dreams in the animal and wakes in man."

Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses. ~Baptiste Molière, Le Malade Imaginaire

The obstacle is the path. ~Zen Proverb