HOME PAGE    HEALTH LIBRARY CATALOG

Front Matter Introduction I Disease--Two Views II The Slaughter of The Innocents III Prenatal Care IV Babies Should be Born in the Spring V Baby's Growth and Development VI The Child's Teeth VII Teething VIII Fat Babies IX Mother's Milk X Should Baby be Weaned XI Three Year Nursing Period XII Cows Milk XIII Pasteurization XIV Three Feedings a Day

XV No Starch for Infants XVI "ReguIar" Crimes in Feeding XVII Feeding of Infants XVIII Baby's General Care XIX Feeding Children from two to six years XX A Healthy Child XXI Undernutrition XXII The Acute "Infectious" Diseases of Childhood XXIII Skin Disorders XXIV Common Disorders of Infants and Children XXV Child Education XXVI Corporal Punishment XVII Vaccinia XXVIII Serum Poisoning XXIX Commercial Medicine

    "The highly sensitive child who becomes a victim to this distressing complaint may find it difficult to escape from his bonds, and the effects of the injury to his emotional condition may be apparent for years. If the parents of the child happen to be stupid and unkind, he may be abused and brow beaten until all sensibility is lost and he becomes case-hardened and a real problem. If the parents extend to him more consideration and more hope--particularly more hope--he will grow out of the habit and it will not seem to him so dreadful after all. In many cases the hyper-sensitiveness and self-discouragement of the child stand most solidly in the way of successful treatment. It is only when he has freed himself from the obsession of weakness, and the fear of the act, that the problem is solved. It is not the appeal to force or coercion that cures the child; it is the development of self-control through the realization of dawning boyhood and its responsibilities that lifts the burden from his mind and body."

    BITING THE NAILS may be only a habit without reason, but it is most likely to be a symptom of nervousness. Look to the correction of nervousness.

    BRONCHIAL ASTHMA is a catarrhal condition and, together with hay fever, is the easiest of all so-called diseases to remedy.

    A fast or fruit juice diet, until breathing is normal and the chest is clear of all abnormal sounds, followed by correct feeding and care will remedy all cases, even the supposed hereditary ones.

    BRONCHITIS is inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the bronchial tube. The lung tissue itself is not involved in this. Bronchitis is a catarrhal condition due to an excess of fats, sugars and starches.

    SYMPTOMS: Acute bronchitis presents, as its chief symptoms, rapid breathing, a sharp, dry cough and fever. The temperature runs about 101 to 102 degrees Farenheit. In older children the rapid breathing is not likely to distress them, although there is apt to be a sense of constriction about the chest, with soreness under the breast bone and pain when coughing; but in infants breathing may be so rapid and difficult that they become blue.

    Wheeler's Handbook of Medicine says of the treatment for bronchitis:

    "In the first stage employ the bronchitis kettle, containing a solution of eucalyptus or pinol; admisister a brisk saline purge, and a diaphoretic mixture. *** The cough may be relieved (suppressed) by Dover's powder, or by heroin, but opiates tend to depress the respiratory centre, and should not be used if there is much cyanosis (blueness). When expectoration has become more copious, ammonia, with senega and ipecacuan; or ammonia, and iodide of potassium, with paregoric, may be given. The strength must be supported (destroyed) by tonics (atonics) hypophosphates, etc. Later, the mineral acids are of use in diminishing the amount of expectoration."

    This treatment is symptomatic and suppressive and is all injurious. It is employed without the slightest suspicion that bronchitis has a cause, or that the symptoms are curative processes. It is the outgrowth of voodooism. Sane men and women do not employ such devilish methods.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Give the child all the fresh air possible. Put him out of doors if it can be done. Keep him warm. Warmth is especially important. Stop all food at once, and give no food until the symptoms are gone. Feed fruit juices and fruit at first, and only gradually add the other foods to the child's diet.

    Rest and quiet are essential. Do not disturb the baby. Looking at its tongue, counting its pulse, taking its temperature and similar procedures are exhausting to the child. The tongue is coated, the pulse is rapid, there is fever. You know this and do not have to be forever confirming these facts. Wine of ipecac, mustard poultices, flax-seed poultices and other forms of voodooism should be avoided.

    CHRONIC BRONCHITIS is the result of chronic provocation and the suppression of acute bronchitis. The patient should be fasted or put on a fruit juice diet until the symptoms are all cleared up and then fed properly. Rest in bed during the fast or fruit juice diet is needed.

    CHOLERA INFANTUM is an inflammatory disorder of the alimentary canal of infants which prevails in the summer months. This disorder was formerly much more prevalent than now and in some localities was the occasion for more dread and anxiety among parents than any of the diseases "peculiar to children." The death rate in this disease in children between the ages of one and two years was once fearful.

    SYMPTOMS: The trouble comes on apparently very suddenly, with great restlessness, fever ranging from 102 to 104 degrees Farenheit. There is much diarrhea, the bowel discharges are accompanied with "bearing down," straining at stool, and considerable pain. Preceding the bowel movement the child will gag or retch.

    The sickness of the stomach and all of the other symptoms gradually increase until vomiting becomes frightfully severe. There is very rapid emaciation and parents and friends usually give up hope of saving the little one--not knowing that the rapid emaciation is one of nature's most potent saving measures.

    The bowels are filled with gas, the abdomen is very sensitive and, where there is much gas accumulation there is a rapid pulse, rapid, oppressed breathing, and a rise in temperature.

    There is extreme thirst, which, alas, was and sometimes is yet, mistaken for hunger. The stools are yellow or whitish-yellow, or they may be tinged with green at the outset, becoming grass-green, with white lumps of milk curd, as the condition grows worse.

    Children may die in twenty-four hours in this condition or the symptoms may abate after the first twenty-four hours and convalesence set in. Dr. Tilden says: "Cholera infantum proper is of twenty-four hours duration; after that, if the child remains sick, the disease assumes one of the types given in the nomenclature"--gastro-intestinal catarrh, gastro enteritis, summer complaint, summer diarrhea, gastritis, entero-colitis, ileo-colitis, diarrhea, dysentery.

    He also says: "After twenty-four hours, if the disease has spent its force and the child is still alive, the bowel movements continue in frequency and contain more mucus, and at times specks or very delicate streaks of blood, and the fever remains about the same. The thirst is consuming: the child puts anything into its mouth. The restlessness is marked by rolling of the head from side to side and throwing the arms and legs from one place to another.

    "Occasionally these cases start with convulsions and quickly sink into a stupor or comatose state, from which they gradually sink into death. Again, stupor may be light, the eyes partly closed, the child becomes more restless and cries at every bowel movement."

    Many of these cases, particularly if badly treated, pass into gastroenteritis. This is, or was, particularly true in the middle states where summers are hot. Surprising as it may seem to the uninformed, many people from these states often come to San Antonio to escape the heat of summer. Cases where gastroenteritis has followed a severe cholera infantum, are liable to relapses if they are not handled very carefully. Such children are sick and are liable to relapses every few days or every week or two. Dr. Tilden says: "The doctors of thirty years to forty years ago (now longer) did not pretend to cure these children; they congratulated themselves on being very successful if they could keep the little ones alive until the frost came in the Fall."

    It was not uncommon in those days to see these miserable little sufferers reduced to veritible skeletons, waiting for frost to come, but often, unfortunately, dying before the weather became cold enough to frost.

    The disease, as previously stated, ranges in severity from a light case of indigestion to a severe case that culminates in death in twenty-four hours. They are all the same and distinctions are those of degree only.

    CAUSES: Cholera infantum is a case of septic poisoning; the putresence arising from gastro-intestinal putrefaction. It is a ptomaine poisoning brought on by wrong care and wrong feeding.

    In health the body is "potentized with immunizing power," and can, to a large extent, render innocuous deleterious substances taken into the stomach. The secretions of the stomach and intestine take care of such substances for us every day that we live. But by wrong eating, and poor hygiene we break down the body's resistance and derange digestion and decomposition produces poisons in excess of the immunizing power of these secretions.

    Babys are often born with a predisposition to digestive derangements. Mothers do not realize, or if they do realize it, they sometimes don't seem to care, that the further they depart from an ideal standard of health, before and during pregnancy, the less resistance their children will be born with.

    After birth, with its meddlesome midwifery, babies are handled too much, fed too much and too often, bathed too much, overclothed, kept in poorly ventilated rooms, over excited, not permitted to sleep enough, subjected to tobacco smoke by those who smoke in the house, and subjected to many influences which weaken them and lower their resistance.

    These are frequently fed from the family table, whatever the older members of the family eat. They are given bad milk from an overworked, over-excited, overfed, or sick mother.

    They are brought up in crowded cities with all their heat, filth, foul air, constant noise and nervous irritations. They enter a world where almost every influence is opposed to them.

    Add to all this the abuses of treatment to which they are subjected--laxatives, purgatives, castoria, paregoric, drugged milks, serums, vaccines and all the rest of the evil influences of voodooism, and that glorious state of life which we know as health is seldom assured them. They are forced to be content with half-health and lowered resistance.

    Against the poisons resulting from the decomposition in the digestive organs in these little children, the body puts up a fight that is all to often a losing fight.

    When the decomposition overwhelms the immunizing power of the digestive juices, the body is poisoned and a real battle begins. The vomiting and purging, so commonly regarded as enemies, are conservative or defensive measures. These are nature's means of expelling the decomposing matter. The putrefying contents of the stomach and intestine are not absorbed. The absorbents, instead of taking up the fluid contents of the digestive tract, reverse their functions, and pour a large amount of fluid--blood-serum into the stomach and intestine to dilute and neutralize the decomposing matter, and wash it away in vomiting and purging. This great quantity of fluid flushes the entire alimentary canal and the poison is washed out. It is this great pouring out of the great amount of serum that causes the great and rapid wasting of the child and the great thirst.

    There is no absorption from the stomach and intestine under such conditions. To feed in these cases is to make the child worse. There is no possibility of nourishing such a child. Digestion and absorption are impossible.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: No doubt some of the worst of these cases will die under the best of care, but undoubtedly most deaths are due to the murderous methods used in treating these cases.

    Food to sustain the patient, drugs to relieve pain, dope to make them "rest" and "sleep," calomel and salines to increase the purging followed by opiates and other drugs to check or suppress the diarrhea, drugs to depress the nerves--how murderous!

    Stop all food at the first sign of trouble. This is the remedy par excellence. Indeed, it often means the difference between life and death. The parent or doctor who stops all food at once fights a winning fight from the start. Fasting is the great pain killer, sleep producer and life saver. There is no danger of starvation and no possibility of nourishing the child.

    Isolation and quiet will secure rest. Drugs to force rest only depress the nervous system, weaken the body, lower resistance and assure chronic after-effects, where they do not result in death. Separate the child from the rest of the family and give it quiet.

    Give it all the pure cool water it desires and it will demand much of this, but never give it food until all acute symptoms are gone and the bowel movements are normal or ceased.

    Keep the child warm. Do not toast it, but keep it warm.

    Never permit a doctor to administer heart tonics (really atonics), for these only help to kill the child. Few people die who are not killed by the efforts to save them.

    Dr. Tilden says: "When the child is very sick, with blanched countenance and almost imperceptible breathing, slip the pillow out from under the head, elevate the feet (by raising the foot of the bed), if possible, without disturbance, place artificial heat around the body, secure plenty of air, and let the child alone. Further than this is malpractice."

    Children that are sick for days and weeks are fed and drugged. These should be fasted until the stomach and bowels are cleaned out and the decomposing milk curds are gotten rid of, then fed according to their powers to digest.

    Dr. Page says of such cases: "Cases are on record where a change in the mother's diet--the avoidance of meat, pastry spices, hot sauces, tea, coffee, chocolate--and the adoption of a generous diet of plain wheat-meal bread (varied with rye, corn, and oatmeals), milk and fruit has rapidly restored infants dying of cholera infantum, without aid from any other source."

    The old Frost Cure, was simply a waiting until the passing of hot weather, which favors decomposition, and the coming of cold weather, which checks decomposition. But it allowed many children to die, because it did not correct the cause of the trouble. Even after the frost had come and the diarrhea had ceased, the real etiological factors were still present and these children frequently died of "diseases peculiar to winter." Those who managed to pull through had about all the "diseases peculiar to children" and If they did not die young, but grew up, they later had all of the "diseases peculiar to adults." The same general fact is still true for the very obvious reason that no efforts are ever made to correct the real causes of disease.

    COLDS: (rhinitis, coryza) represent processes of vicarious elimination. They are not caused by cold feet, damp air, night air, exposure to cold, eating your gruel out of a damp bowl, exposure to heat, etc., nor are they caused by germs.

    The two great causes of colds are repletion and exhaustion. Anything and everything that tends to tax and lower the vital or nervous powers, impairs digestion, checks elimination and tends to bring on disease.

    Repletion or plethora, (overeating with surcharged blood vessels) tends to overtax the functions of life, poison the body and necessitates a process of compensatory elimination, which is disease.

    Eating when exhausted, when worried, or over excited, or under any similar circumstance, when the digestive powers are low, also poisons the body and calls for an unusual house-cleaning process.

    Excesses of sugar, starch and milk are the chief causes of colds and other catarrhal conditions.

    We do not "catch" colds; we develop them within ourselves. The cold, per se, is a life saving measure, a process of elimination.

    Many so-called diseases begin with a cold and others develop after recurring colds and this has given rise to the theory that colds prepare the way for "other diseases;" that they weaken the body and prepare it for attack by some other and more virulent disease. Nothing can be farther from the truth. If the prevailing theory that colds and other so-called diseases are due to germs is correct, there seems to be no reason why the less virulent germs (of colds) must first break down the resistance of the body before the more virulent germs (of infantile paralysis, measles, tuberculosis, etc.) can cause disease therein.

    I do not accept the germ theory and I have no patience with those who use this superstition as a means of frightening people out of their wits. Mr. Harter, of the Defensive Diet League, lists an array of troubles which, he says are "all spread by what is technically known as 'spray infection,' " and that the "common cold" is responsible for "a tremenduous amount of sickness and many fatalities" from these diseases. He says "The germ laden spray from such a person carries up to five feet when he talks or laughs; up to ten feet when he coughs or sneezes without covering his nose and mouth with handkerchief, or mask or hand. Venture within five or ten foot limits unprotected at your own peril." This is just voodooism.

    The germ theory is a theory of chance and lawlessness. We are here by accident. How we managed to escape annihilation, during the ages of ignorance and stupidity that elapsed before Louis Pasteur came upon the scene, is inexplicable. Without bacteriologists and serologists we would all soon perish.

    The medical profession is satisfied to have every disease caused by a germ and in those diseases for which a germ has not been discovered, the profession assumes that germs cause them just the same and treat these conditions accordingly. Assuming the truth of this theory, there are several important questions that need answering. Dr. Tilden has well put them as follows:

    "What prevents sporadic cases of disease from kindling endemics? And why do not endemics create epidemics? And epidemics create pandemics? Why is it that in families of children one or two may have diphtheria, scarlet fever, or typhoid fever, and no other member of the family takes the disease? Thc answer may be that as soon as the disease breaks out those who are not sick are rendered immune. But I must meet this statement with the very stubborn fact that this was true before the alleged discovery of immunization; and it is as true of scarlet fever today as in all past time. It must not be forgotten that the germ of scarlet fever has not yet been discovered; hence its cure and prevention are still in the maze of obscurity. But, in spite of this fact, scarlet fever has declined as rapidly, if not more tepidly, than diphtheria, which disease has been almost entirely wiped out by the great discoveries in the line of immunization."

    Coming back to colds, instead of laying us liable to "other diseases," they tend just the other way. That condition of the body that makes the cold, or a series of colds necessary, may and often does, due to the persistence of its causes, demand other forms of eliminating crises (disease) to remedy. But tuberculosis no more develops out of a cold than the hair on a man's face develops out of the hair of his head. A cold may be and usually is part of an acute disease, like measles or scarlet fever, and it may be the first part of this marvelous process of systemic purification to develop.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: It is only because the cold may be the prodromal symptom of a formidable disease that this condition should receive immediate care in a child. A disease cared for properly from the start never becomes serious, nor results fataly.

    Whether it is a "common cold" or a prodrome of typhoid or spinal menengitis, the child should be put to bed, all food stopped, except perhaps some orange juice, where there is no fever, and kept warm. That is all there is to the treatment of any acute so-called disease--rest, fasting, warmth. Rest includes quiet and physical comfort. Fresh air is always imperative. No common cold can last long when the patient is cared for in this manner.

    COLIC: Dr. Page says: "When a vast audience is convulsed with laugthter over Mark Twains' witty description of the experiences of parents with colicky babies, it may be well for them to forget, for the moment, the thousands of little audiences of two, or three, or four, gathered about the death-beds of emaciated little ones dying in convulsions, not of laughter, and that provoke no laughter, either on earth or in heaven. More than eight hundred such audiences in one city, in a single week, who can force even a smile to their wan countenances, except it be, perchance, a smile of resignation to what seems to be a token of the chastening, though loving hand of God."

    Have you ever watched the tossing and listened to the agonizing cries of the baby with colic? Have you ever watched anxious parents walk the floor nearly all night with such a baby in their vain efforts to stop its crying? If you have, you know that colic is no laughing matter--at least, not with the child and its parents.

    It was and is yet to some extent, the custom to cram babies full of milk every two hours and feed them every time that they cried between feeding times, and keep them purging and puking, until they finally became constipated, after which they would writhe and shriek with colicky pains. Then mother or nurse or even father would wrap them in hot clothes turn them on their little bellies across the attendants knees and try to jounce the wind out of them. Paregoric, castoria, cathartics and other forms of drugging are frequently resorted to.

    Drawing up the legs when crying is not an evidence of colic. Most babies draw up their legs when they cry from whatever cause and one that Is crying vigorously will always draw up the legs and arms.

    The symptoms of colic are pain, flatulence, expulsion of gas, diarrhea, or constipation, green or curdy stools, eructations and perhaps vomiting.

    Besides over feeding (the most common cause), colic may be induced by getting cold or over heated or by any other influence that deranges digestion. Babies that are fed properly, kept dry and warm and not handled to much and not over heated do not have colic.

    The remedy for colic is: stop all feeding until comfort has returned. Thereafter feed and care for the child properly.

    CONSTIPATION is the result of tired overworked bowels. It is an aftermath of diarrhea and purging and of enervating influences. It is the reaction from overaction.

    The greatest single cause of constipation in infants is overfeeding. The constant overfeeding of infants results in diarrhea and finally, an overworked colon, which is to tired and exhausted to function efficiently.

    "Passing Enervation and Toxemia which are basic causes and omnipresent where there is any departure from the normal health standard overfeeding is first, last and all the time the cause of constipation in childen," says Dr. Tilden. Overfeeding is followed by imperfect digestion, flatulency, bowel discomfort, loose movements with curds in the stools. The amount of the curds increases as the digestive impairment becomes greater and, finally, the stools may become hard, dry and even lumpy. Children that are properly cared for and properly fed never have constipation.

    Medical authors give as a cause of constipation, a "lack of food." But it is obvious that in these cases there is no real constipation. The bowels in such cases do not move simply because they are empty or nearly so.

    I received an agreeable surprise while preparing the manuscript for this book, by finding, while reviewing two medical works on the care of children, that some of these, at least, are beginning to present a rational view of constipation in infancy. One of these books, jointly written by three leading child specialists, Drs. Morse, Wyman and Hill, declares: "In any case constipation is the least of evils in a breast-fed baby and ought not to cause any anxiety. Many mothers worry most unnecessarily about what they think is constipation, when there is really nothing the matter with the baby. It must be remembered, in this connection, that it is not necessary for every baby to have a movement every day, and that the consistency or the stools may vary normally in different babies." It is greatly to be regretted that these authors do not take the same view of the hand-fed baby.

    The second such book, by Belle Wood Comstock, M. D., says: "If baby's bowels do not go over twenty-four hours without moving, do not worry. Patience is usually all that is necessary, and if baby is all right in every way, he is willing to wait a day and give his bowels a chance. Over anxiety and fussing have laid the foundation for many a case of chronic constipation. #### Never begin milk of magnesia, Castoria, or any laxative--just walt.

    I have seen babies go for three days without a bowel movement and no harm result. These babies were sick and in such cases, even Dr. Comstock would resort to the enema, or other means of forcing action.

    Dr. Comstock cautions: "Don't don't ever give soapsuds enema, Castoria, or castor oil. Castor-oil days for babies are past." Would to God that they were! But there are still too many doctors, nurses and parents giving this and other purgatives to babies. For instances Morse- Wyman-Hill say, castor oil "is by far the best and most efficient cathartic. Its action is rapid and very thorough, and it does not ordinarily cause griping."

    Parents should never give purgatives of any kind to their children, whether the doctor advises it or not. Purgatives are the chief cause of chronic constipation. They upset the whole digestive tract, deranging their secretions and leaving them dry and exhausted.

    Morse-Wyman-Hill say: "Great care must be taken in the use of both suppositories and enema not to establish a bad habit. It is very easy to so accustom the baby to them that it will not move its bowels without them, although the need for them has long passed."

    A measure that "loosens the bowels" does not cure the difficulty, says Dr. Page. "It only produces more or less purgation." "For my own part, speaking with relation to the constipated habit so common, I consider that we should look for a remedy to the promotion of the general health, and having decided upon the diet, we should avoid frequent changes of amounts and proportions, which are always made at the risk of the system not getting accustomed to any one variety."

    Page also says: "Sometimes there is no occasion for a movement for a day or two--no evidence of a desire for one. To use purgatives or injections in such cases is mischievious. A change of diet, or in the weather, may temporarily affect the babe. In bringing one over-fed bottle baby to three meals, four days passed, and then he had an easy, natural movement; then three days and another; then two. After this he had regular daily passages."

    While in ordinary cases I never give nor advise an enema, there are rare cases in bottle-fed infants, where the milk curds are so large that they become impacted in the colon and in such cases a bowel movement, without aid, seems almost impossible. The child will grunt and strain and cry, but the impacted curds will not move. In such cases a warm water enema should be employed.

    CONVULSIONS: There are few conditions that strike more terror into the heats of parents than to see their child in convulsions. Yet convulsions are not, of themselves, dangerous and it is a very uncommon thing for a child to die in convulsions.

    Convulsions occur chiefly in infants and children with unstable and poorly adjusted nervous systems. Slight causes may bring on convulsions in some children. Undoubtedly these are the children that give us most of our cases of epilepsy. Most children never have convulsions, while others may have them at frequent intervals if their nervous systems are irritated from any cause.

    Convulsions may occur during a high fever or at the beginning of any acute so-called infectious disease, but by far the greatest number of cases are due to digestive disturbances, due in most cases to over-feeding. Many cases result from the suppression of skin eruptions.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: The cause reveals the prevention and the remedy. Stop all foods and give no drugs. Put the child to bed, in front of an open window or door and let it alone. Don't disturb it. Keep the child warm.

    Last year (1929) I visited a child that I was told was dying. When I reached it, from across the street, I found the child in convulsions. The mother was sitting in a chair, with the child in her arms, tossing it up and down and sobbing: "Oh! my poor child! Oh! my poor child!"

    I took the child from her, laid it on a table, over which a folded quilt had been hastily spread, and placed it in the open door. Almost immediately the twitching movements began to cease, the eyes, thrown upward, soon returned to their normal position, the head which was thrown back, relaxed and the child began to look around. In fifteen minutes the child was asleep.

    This child had been given a cup of coffee only an hour previously, the milk-man having delayed in delivering the milk. The poor ignorant mother who made her own breakfast on coffee, as so many other ignorant people do, gave this poisonous drug to the child also. I attribute the convulsions in this case to caffeine poisoning.

    CROUP: This is a common malady of early childhood. Scrofulous and plethoric children are most subject to it. Many children have it every winter. Candies, cakes, greasy mixtures; fried foods, excesses of Milk, bread, cereals, sugar, syrups, etc., tend to produce this condition.

    Formerly croup was divided into membraneous and nonmembraneous or simple croup. Membraneous croup is now regarded as diphtheria. Dr. Trall thought the two croups differed only in degree and said "in the former case the exudation which forms on the mucous lining of the wind pipe (trachea) concretes into a membraneous covering, and in the latter case, the excreted matter is expectorated without consolidation."

    The differences in the behavior of the two exudates show a big difference in their characters, and points to differences in their causes. Simple croup is of a catarrhal nature and results from carbohydrate plethora; membraneous croup is of a serous nature and is the result of protein poisoning. Protein poisoning is more virulent than starch poisoning.

    Croup is a catarrhal inflammation of the larynx with swelling of its mucous lining. It is a very alarming condition but not serious It usually comes on about midnight, appearing quite suddenly and manifesting itself by a sharp, dry, hoarse barking cough. In severe cases it is difficult for the child to breathe, the child making an apparently superhuman struggle for breath, and there is often a temporary high fever. To be awakened about midnight from a sound sleep and find your child, whom you had put to bed apparently in the best of health, struggling for its breath, with shrill wheezy inspirations, perhaps blue in the face, and coughing almost constantly, is enough to frighten any parent. It dues not matter how frequently one sees croup, it never fails to produce a feeling of apprehension and terror.

    However, the condition soon passes off, the child goes to sleep, and by morning seems as well as ever, giving one the impression that the whole experience was a horrible nightmare.

    An overloaded stomach almost always precedes an "attack" of croup. Breathing the hot dry air from stove or furnace, tends to produce the condition. Many cases would never occur if bed rooms were properly ventilated and stoves kept out of them. Where a stove is in the room a pan of water should be placed on it to keep the air in the room moist.

    Croup is always the result of wrong feeding and bad hygiene. The fattest children are the ones who have the croup most. It does not result from cold or exposure or wet feet and similar bugaboos. No child need never have the croup.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Children who are prone to have croup frequently are overfed on bread, potatoes, beans, cereals, sugar, syrups, jellies, jams, cakes, pies, milk, etc., and are housed in poorly ventilated homes. When the diet is changed and the home ventilated, the croup disappears, never to return. These children should not be permitted to overload their stomachs at night, nor at any other time, for that matter.

    There is no treatment which can do any good during an "attack." Hot baths or warm cloths applied to the chest are the least harmful of the palliative measures in use, but even these are unnecessary and not curative. The "attack" only lasts a few minutes and the real treatment should consist in the reordering of the life and habits of the child so that there will not be subsequent attacks. The ancient rule laid down by Galen that recurring affections are to be treated during the intervals rather than during the "attacks," should be our guide in croup.

    If a child has an attack of croup, stop all food at once and either give nothing but water or water and orange juice or grapefruit juice for three full days. This is especially important since an occasional case of croup, which turns out to be the early stage of a fatal diphtheria, would probably never have been fatal if feeding had been stopped at the first signs of trouble. It is also necessary because croup usually lasts about 3 days, the "attacks" coming on only at night. There may be almost no hoarseness in the morning and during the day, until late in the afternoon, when he again becomes croupy.

    Hot mustard baths, wine of ipecac, syrup of ipecac, paregoric, emetics, warm enemas, inhalations of chloroform, turpentine vapors, moist inhalations and adenoid operations are among the medical measures in use. None of these are of value, although they may do much harm, not the least of which is the fact that they teach parents and children to rely on these things for palliation rather than on hygiene for permanent cure. They build the sick habit and lead us away from a sense of personal responsibility.

    CROWING DISEASE: Larynigismus stridulus, laryngospasm, spasms of the glottis, is a spasmotic affection of the windpipe (trachea), which closes the glottis and threatens suffocation. The term crowing disease or crowing inspiration, is applied to the condition because the patient makes a noise similar to that attending the inhalation of air in croup or whooping cough.

    The paroxysms occur at irregular intervals. During these periods the patient struggles for breath and seems to be actually suffocating or strangling. In some cases the struggling terminates in a general convulsion. If crying or coughing occur the paroxysm is ended.

    The disease looks more dangerous than it really is. It occurs almost wholly in rachitic children. The paroxysms are brought on by emotions, indigestion, or irritating and exciting influences. Fatal cases are rare.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: The paroxysm lasts only a few seconds, but may recur frequently. Rest, quiet and warmth are all that are required during the paroxysm.

    The real care of these children is to correct their diet and general hygiene and get rid of the rickets. See the care of this condition.

    DIARRHEA may be due to a number of causes. Overheating, chilling and over excitement are often causes. In such cases the stools are likely to be normal in all other respects except diminished consistency.

    Diarrhea is, in most cases, the result of indigestion brought on by the stuffing process. An oversupply of milk or of some part of the milk will produce a diarrhea.

    An excess of fat causes the stools to be yellow or yellowish-green; and often to look oily. They are apt to be rancid, and are acid in reaction. They are prone to irritate the buttocks. The stools often contain mucus and soft curds.

    An excess of sugar (any kind, even milk sugar), causes the stools to be more or less green, and gives them an acid odor. They are acid in reaction and also irritate the buttocks. Mucus and sometimes small, soft curds are found in them.

    Maltose-dextrine preparations produce brown or yellowish-brown, seldom green, stools. Such stools are acid in reaction, possess a peculiar acid odor and irritate the buttocks. Mucous and small soft curds are often present.

    Diarrhea produced by starch is similar to that produced by the maltose-dextrines except that they usually do not contain mucous or curds.

    Protein excess produces brown or yellowish-brown stools, with a foul or musty odor and an alkaline reaction. The curds are plentiful and large. The stools may, but usually do not, cause irritation of the buttocks.

    Blood and mucous in the stools indicate an acute inflammation.

    If curds appear in the baby's stools, or if the color and consistency are not normal, the amount of food should be reduced.

    If these signs of indigestion have been ignored until diarrhea has developed, all feeding must be immediately stopped. No food should be given to the child until the bowels are normal again.

    If there is no fever and the child demands food, fruit juice may be allowed. If there is fever, nothing but water should be given to the child.

    Castor oil, milk of magnesia, soda, enemas, etc., should not be given.

    Mucous and blood call for perfect rest and quiet and warmth; no food and, neither last nor least, no drugs.

    Dr. E. B. Lowry says: "Another measure that will aid in the prevention of summer diarrhea is the wearing of a woolen binder. Until the baby is about two years old it should have its abdomen protected by flannel at all times. No matter how warm the day may be, there are liable to be little drafts which, will cause a sudden chilling of the abdomen. The knitted bands with a shoulder strap probably are the most convenient. They should be pinned to the diaper in front so that they will protect the abdomen well."

    So long as such nonsense can be passed off on parents as science, just so long will infants suffer and die. These hot, constricting binders should no more be thought of for babies than for young puppies or young calves. One of these animals has as much need for a binder as the other. Binders belong to the sick habit and the doctoring business.

    Some medical authorities advise boiling all milk fed to infants and children in the summer time, as a means of preventing diarrhea. Some, also, advise feeding boiled milk to the child with diarrhea as a means of curing the trouble. Boiling milk subjects it to greater changes than pasteurizing and renders it less fit than ever for food. Boiled milk causes constipation. This is the reason it is used to prevent and cure diarrhea. It is the ancient practice of "curing one disease by producing another." L. Emmett Hold, M. D., L.L. D., and Henry L. K. Shaw, M. D., two noted baby specialists, are advocates of boiling milk to prevent diarrhea in the summer time. It is only added evidence of my frequent assertion that baby specialists know less about the proper care of babies than any one else. Their book is published and endorsed by the American Medical Association. May heaven save the children from the ex-spurts who know all about a thing and know it all wrong.

    DYSENTERY: This is a distressing inflammation of the mucous lining of the colon, an acute colitis, attended with fever of the "typhoid" form. The bowel is affected by an agonizing bearing down sensation, termed tenesmus.

    It is caused by the same causes that produce cholera infantum and is really the same condition in a different location. It should be cared for as directed for cholera infantum.

    EARS, INFLAMATION OF: Otitis media, is inflammation in the cavity of the middle ear. Medical authors tell us that otitis media is very common in babies and young children. This may be so in babies and children fed as they advise, but it is nor so in those who are fed and cared for Hygienically.

    SYMPTOMS: The symptoms are earache, and sometimes a discharge from the ear. In some cases there is no ache and the first indication of trouble is the discharge. Fever, crying, and restlessness are the chief symptoms in babies. The child may continually place its hand on its ear. The child will often scream and it keeps this up no matter what is done for it. In other cases, where there is apparently no pain, there is fever.

    CAUSES: Exposure to cold is the cause, according to popular superstition. Medical superstition has is that the condition arises out of an acute cold, an infection in back of the nose, etc. Otitis media is an extension of catarrh which passes up the Eustachian tube to the middle ear and is due to the same things that cause catarrh in any other part of the body.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Most cases of this trouble last but a few hours and, while they cause considerable pain, do not result in a discharge or any serious trouble. The old fashioned "remedy" was to place a hot "poultice" over the ear--a bag of hot ashes, hot peach-tree leaves, hot sand, etc., depending on which of these substances one placed his faith in. I recall an instance when my father filled his pipe with tobacco and lit it. Placing a thin cloth over the bowl of the pipe and placing the end of the stem near the entrance of my ear, he blew through the cloth and sent the hot smoke into my painful ear. This soon brought relief, as will heat, however applied. The "virtue" in the poultices did not lay in the ashes or the leaves, but in the heat Today the hot-water bottle or the therapeutic lamp are used for the same purpose and with about as much blind faith in their "curative" powers.

    The heat gives relief from pain, but I doubt that it is in any way beneficial. I am inclined to think it is harmful. I know that doctors and parents tend to consider the condition cured when the pain is relieved. The basic causes of the trouble are not corrected.

    These children should be put to bed and all food with- held from, them so long as the pain lasts. After this their diet and hygiene should be adjusted in such a manner as to produce and maintain health. If this is done there will be no recurrence.

    Do not syringe the ears. Keep everything out of the child's ear.

    ERYSIPELAS is due to septic infection of the child due to uncleanliness and carelessness. Irritants, washes, soap, alcoholic stimulants and all drugs irritate and do not help the condition.

    Fasting or fruit juice diet, with strict cleanliness, is the remedy.

    FEVER indicates poisoning (not drug poisoning), usually decomposition in the intestine. It means that there is a mass of rotting food in the food tube poisoning the body.

    It, means something else--namely: Nutrition is suspended until the poisoning is overcome. It means that no more food should be given to the child until all fever and other symptoms are gone. It means that nothing but water, as demanded by thirst, should be given to the patient.

    So long as there is fever and diarrhea, no food, of whatever character, can be of any use to the child. If the child appears to be hungry it is thirst. Give it water, for food will not relieve thirst.

    If food is given to the feverish infant it usually vomits it up immediately; nature refusing food as fast as well meaning, but misguided parents and attendants force it upon the child.

    Bear in mind that the food decomposed and poisoned the child because the child's digestive power had been greatly impaired and that to give it more food, under such conditions, is only to add to the poisoning.

    The disease will last until the poisons have been eliminated and the decomposing food has been voided. Fever, vomiting and purging are natures methods of getting rid of the poison and when these cases are fasted and not fed such troubles soon end. There is no danger in them. Feeding and drugging are the elements of danger. Never permit your child to be drugged and do not permit the physician to reduce (suppress) its fever.

    When animals, young and old, become sick they instinctively refrain from eating. Warmth, quiet and fasting, with a little water, are all they want. When they take nourishment, it is a sure sign that they are recovering. They eat but little at first and gradually eat more as they grow better. They never worry about calories or protein requirements, either.

    Infants call for warmth, quiet and fasting, plus water. They will take nourishment, if they are not given water, because they are thirsty. But they are made sicker each time they take it.

    The body never preforms any of what Dr. Tilden calls "Hindoo tricks" in this matter of taking nourishment. It does not digest and absorb food when digestion is suspended and the membranes of the stomach and intestine are exuding matter instead of absorbing it. It is exuding fluid to aid in expelling the mass of putresence in the food tube and to protect the walls of the tube and any irritated surface from the irritation. Sometimes nature even rejects water, expelling it by vomiting, as often as it is forced down. How foolish, in such cases to continue to force food and drugs on the patient and water into his stomach. Nature is trying to protect herself by this vomiting. She even guards herself against water by creating a bad taste in the mouth that causes the patient to refuse water.

    "In all sick stomachs," says Dr. Tilden, "especially in Typhoid or cholera infantum, there is an irritation due to the bad effect of decomposition, and the nausea and vomiting is a conservative measure, and, rightly interpreted mean, #### a suspension of absorption and a pouring out of the water of the blood and other secretions for the purpose of immunizing and flushing" the stomach and intestine.

    Parents; if you are wise, you will never feed your sick children. Be not afraid to let them fast. For, everyday that they fast lessens' their illness and their danger. Feeding adds to their suffering and danger and prolongs their illness.

    GRINDING THE TEETH: is an indication of nervousness or indigestion. Where the trouble is due to indigestion the child is apt to cry out at night. Eating between meals will often cause this trouble. Worms are thought to be the most common cause by those who know nothing about feeding children. The remedy is apparent--correct the diet and all causes of nervousness

    HERNIA (Rupture); sometimes develops in infants and children. Crying is often held responsible for this condition. I do not think crying ever produces hernia. Over-feeding with gas distension of the abdomen is probably the chief cause.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: stop the over-feeding. Give the child abdominal exercise. I advise that this be done by some one fully acquainted with corrective gymnastics.

    INDIGESTION is due to over-feeding, wrong feeding, over excitement, over-heating, chilling, to much handling and to drugging. Sugar, candy, cookies, etc., are frequent causes of indigestion.

    If a child "loses its appetite," know that it is either sick or fatigued. Do not coax it to eat. The lack of appetite is a saving thing.

    Pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, foul breath and loss of ppetite, with listlessness are the chief symptoms.

    It is said that many of the acute diseases begin with these symptoms, and so they do; they would also end with these if feeding and drugging were not resorted to. Most serious illnesses are the results of feeding and drugging simple ailments.

    Never feed sick children. Let them fast. And please bear in mind that fasting is not starving. On this subject of fasting I recommend to my readers my two books, Human Life It's Philosophy and Laws, and The Regeneration Of Life.

    Don't give your child bicarbonate of soda, castor oil, pepsin, hydrochloric acid, pancreatin, bile salts, or other drugs commonly used in cases of indigestion. Do not give them tonics (atonics), appetizers, antifermentatives, etc. These do not remove the causes of the indigestion; but they do add to the causes. They are injurious and valueless.

    Stop all food so long as there are acute symptoms. Keep the child warm and in bed.

    After the symptoms are gone, feed and care for it properly. If your child suffers with digestive disorders, you are to blame.

    INFANTILE PARALYSIS (poliomyelitis), is paralysis in infants and young children. It is divided into the intra-uterine and the post-natal classes. Dr. Tilden says "the ante-birth causes are not hereditary; for an influence to cause paralysis to be hereditary would prevent conception; or, in other words, sterility prevents such calamities." Nature brands unfitness with the stamp of sterility.

    The Paralysis may be due to changes in the brain or in the cord. Several forms are described, but these relate to location and not to the actual cause or causes of the affection.

    CAUSES: Cases developing before birth are due to injuries and poisons. Doubtless most of these cases are really due to injuries, received at birth. Cases developing after birth result from infection, either from gastro-intestinal decomposition or from vaccination. A plethoric state, due to over-eating, is described by medical men as a "well-nourished" state. They say that acute epidemic poliomyelitis "appears in children previously well nourished."

    Children usually completely recover from these conditions. Many die, many more are left crippled for life. Undoubtedly many cases of death and permanent disability are due to the drugs and serums used in treating the condition in its early and acute stages.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Rest in bed, with plenty of fresh air in the room are essential. Stop all food until all convulsions, twitchings, spasmodic movements, spastic contractions, fever, etc., are gone. After this feed the child a fruit diet for a week, then feed it normally. Cases that are left with muscular and nervous incoordination require muscular and nervous reeducation in the form of educational gymnastics.

    JAUNDICE OF THE NEW BORN--approximately no per cent of babies show more or less jaundice in the first week of life. One maternity hospital reported some years ago that out of nine hundred babies three hundred developed jaundice. Doctors call this condition icterus neonatorum-- that is a name to frighten parents with.

    In a day to a few days, from the second to the fifth being the usual time, after birth the baby begins to turn yellow and parents become alarmed. The condition gradually grows worse, and then gradually disappears. Its average duration is three to four days although it may last longer, even two weeks. The yellow color is first noticed on the skin of the face and chest, then in the white portions of the eyes (conjunctive), and then it spreads over the body. The skin varies in color from a pale yellow to a yellowish brown.

    The general health of the baby is unimpaired and jaundiced babies fare as well as others. The condition is not serious, is never fatal and requires no treatment. Our mothers used to brew saffron tea to dose their children for this condition. It had no value, but the condition speedly cleared up, as it always does, anyway, and this proved the value of the tea.

    MASTOIDITIS: This is inflammation of the mastoid, a small piece of the skull which lies directly behind the ear.

    SYMPTOMS: There is deep-seated pain and tenderness over the mastoid process, more or less fever, swelling, and in some cases pus formation.

    CAUSES: In cases where earache, otitis media, is treated with heat, dry wiping, syringing, etc., and the causes of the catarrhal inflammation ignored, as is usually the case, the inflammation may extend to the porous bone back of the ear--the mastoid. This does not occur in the vast majority of cases, for nature is always busy limiting inflammation as much as possible. Mastoiditis will never occur as a "complication" of otitis media, if the earache is properly cared for and not merely suppressed and then forgotten.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Operation is the usual recourse. It is a very dangerous procedure and seldom advisable. Rest, warmth, fasting and fresh air will speedly remedy nearly all such cases.

    NERVOUSNESS is quite common in children today. Parents, teachers, nurses, doctors and everyone who has to deal with children know only too well how prevalent is this condition.

    The nervous child is irritable and ill-tempered, fretful and capricious. His sleep is likely to be disturbed and unrefreshing. He seldom sleeps soundly. His appetite is capricious, his tongue often coated, and his breath bad. He is usually underweight and does not put on weight no matter what food is given him. On occasions he will be a little feverish and may present extreme lassitude. In the worst cases enuresis (bed wetting), diarrhea, vomiting and other evidences of physical disorders are present.

    These "trivial" ailments may seem to the average person to bear no relation to the nervousness, but they are truly indicative of an underlying systemic derangement that must be attended to at once if more serious developments are to be avoided.

    Nervous children are not likely to be well developed and alert. They are more prone to be limp, underdeveloped and listless. Some of them are said to be "on the go" all the time, but this overstimulation does not last. Soon these lack the zest and eagerness that should be the mark of all young life. They bear every evidence of nervous fatigue and physical exhaustion.

    The round shoulders, flattened chest, protruding abdomen, exaggerated spinal curves, loose knees, and sallow, pasty complexion all bear evidence that the child is not well nourished.

    Dr. Harry Clements says: "In all cases the condition of the alimentary tract will be found abnormal and far from wholesome. In the worst form we may see the condition known as cyclical vomiting. The child is prostrated under the attack. The face has no colour, the lips may be red but dry, and the muscular structure of the body seems utterly relaxed. The breath is foul, and the bowels are either violently diarrhoeric or badly constipated. The whole picture is that of systemic poisoning, plus a violent reaction of the digestive processes against normal functioning."

    Incontinence of the urine, day and night, and incontinence of the feces are seen in extreme cases also.

    It should be evident that we are dealing with a condition that requires study and patience, for in a large number of these cases there enters a hereditary neurotic diathesis, which makes the child's nervous system unstable. Dr. Harry Clements astutely remarks. "It will be obvious that the old-fashioned method of looking at his tongue and prescribing a laxative will neither help, the child nor satisfy the parent that the physician has grasped the significance of the problem."

    It is necessary to thoroughly study such a child. Its whole life and its heredity must be gone into. Its diet, sleep, social contacts and its studies and mental efforts are all important. Much of the remedy is educational and few parents and physicians are prepared to handle such a case correctly. Indeed parental mismanagement is largely responsible for the condition of the nervous child. The mental overstimulation of children, by our present hot-house method of mis-education, is a large factor in producing nervousness in children. Whipping, scolding, nagging, fault-finding and other such elements in the child's environment, are injurious to the nervous system of a child. Frightening children with scarey stories, bogie men, dogs, etc., and leaving them in dark rooms for something to catch, and locking them in closets are criminal procedures. Parents guilty of such cruelty deserve severe punishment.

    Says Dr. Harry Clements: "The nervous child suffers from his contact with grown-up persons who are forever communicating to him their criticisms, their failures and their fears. When he reacts with fits of temper, irritability, fretfulness, he meets with reproofs and punishments which he neither respects nor heeds."

    The nervous child needs sympathetic understanding, kindness, firmness, and the best of care. Nothing helps such children like a proper diet and outdoor life. Such a child, if his condition is bad, should be removed from school. All criticism, nagging, scolding, whipping, etc., should be abandoned. The genitals should be carefully cleansed and cared for to remove all irritation that may exist in these. Plenty of rest and sleep are required. By all means avoid drugs, serums, tonics, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, operations on the tonsils and adenoids, etc.

    PICKING AT THE NOSE is the result of irritation of the nostrils. It is evidence of a catarrhal condition. Correct the catarrh.

    PNEUMONIA is inflammation of the lung tissue. There are two forms.

    Broncho-pneumonia presents small scattered spots of inflammation in the lungs. This type is the most common in small babies.

    Lobar pneamonia is inflammation of one lobe, and even more extensive areas of the lung. It is the more common form in older children.

    Pneumonia does not develop in children who are properly cared for. It is more serious in infants than in children from three to twelve years. The mortality in pneumonia in early childhood is lower than during any other period of life.

    SYMPTOMS. The "onset" is usually apparently sudden, although it may be preceded by a cold or bronchitis, with a severe chill or chills, lasting fifteen minutes to an hour, followed by a sudden rise in temperature. Intensely sharp pain in the lower front part of the chest or in the region of the arm pits develops in a few hours. Breathing is labored. There is a dry painful cough, with scanty, sometimes, blood streaked mucous. After the first day the sputum becomes orange-yellow or prune juice color. There is rapid pulse and heart action.

    MEDICAL ABUSE of these cases continues, despite the fact tht they admit that they have no cure for the trouble. For instance, Morse-Wyman-Hill say: "There is no drug which will cure pneumonia. Many babies have been killed by being fussed over too much, handled to much, and over-medication. #### The two things for a mother to remember especially about pneumonia are that much medication and much handling of the child do more harm than good and that there is no specific cure for the disease. It must take its course and the child must fight it off itself."

    There is not a word in this quotation which does not apply to every other so-called disease. There is no drug or specific that will cure any disease. Every disease must take its course and the patient must get well himself. Too much handling, being fussed over too much, and all medication tend to kill. Disease is a process of cure--yes, even pneumonia is a curative process.

    Sir Wm. Osler says: "There is no specific treatment for pneumonia. The young practitioner should bear in mind that patients are more often damaged than helped by the promiscuous drugging, which is still only too prevalent."

    Yes indeed! But listen to this from this same Osler and this same Principles and Practice of Medicine: the pain at the "onset" of the disease "may be so severe as to require a hypodermic injection of morphine." Then he offers bleeding, serums, veratrum viride. digitalis, digitalin, strychnine, camphor, caffein, musk, alcohol, saline infusions, the Paquetin cautery, hot and cold applications, Dover's powders, (an opium mixture favoring the accumulation of the exudate in the lungs, because it suppresses the cough that clears the lungs, and "aids," as Tilden says, "all severe cases in dying of asphyxiation."), hot poultices, icebags, and cold sponging. He says, "The stitch in the side at onset, which is sometimes so agonizing, is best relieved by hypodermic injection of a quarter of grain of morphia."

    Drugs and applications to relieve pain, check the cough, allay delirium, reduce fever, control blood pressure, "sustain" (depress) the heart, allay nervousness, etc.,--all of which is symptomatic and suppressive treatment--accompanied by feeding, kills the patient. Osler says: "The food should be liquid, consisting chiefly of milk, either alone or, better, mixed with food prepared with some one of the cereals and eggs, either soft boiled or raw."

    Osler tells us that "pneumonia may well be called the friend of the aged. Taken off by it in an acute, short, not often painful illness, the old man escapes the 'cold gradations of decay,' so distressing to himself and to his friends."

    This is a cleverly camouflaged confession of failure, a failure that should cause people everywhere to avoid the doctors and their dope. Osler has the courage to caution against the use of the oxygen tank in this disease. The average physician feeds and dopes these patients and neglects ventilation, until the patient is nearly dead of dope and asphyxiation, then he scads a "hurry-up call" for the oxygen tank and finishes off his patient with one last grandstand play of scientific D--foolishness.

    What wonder that the hospital mortality in this disease runs 20 to 40 per cent and in people over sixty from 60 to 80 per cent!

    Dr. Richard C. Cabot says: "A person needs good nursing and fresh air in pneumonia, and that is about all. There is very little that we physicians can do at the present time to cure pneumonia. It is a very sharp illness, but short, and the drain upon the patient's finances is not often great if we have the true diagnosis. About 25 per cent of all adult cases die. When it occurs in alcoholics seventy-five per cent die. ### The doctor is almost never to blame for the death in pneumonia, nor responsible for the recovery in favorable cases. In children outdoor treatment seems to help very much, but children do much better than adults anyway."

    I do not agree that doctors are almost never to blame for death in this disease. I am convinced that at least ninety per cent of the deaths, at least in younger persons, are caused by doctors. Look over their program for treating a trouble for which they can do nothing, and see if you like this method of "doing nothing."

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Open the windows and doors, or take the patient out-doors, stop all food but water. Keep the patient warm--keep a hot water bottle at the feet. Let him rest. Do not disturb him. Secure peace and quiet for the patient. Let him alone and led him get well.

    For heaven's sake don't drug your child and don't let anyone Use do it. Don't allow any serum to be given. Never permit a doctor to experiment on your child. You have no right to do this.

    When the fever is gone and the lungs are clear, and there is no more cough, give the child orange juice. Keep him in bed for at least a week. Rest is important. Keep him on orange juice for the most of this time, after which give fruit and then gradually work up to the normal diet. Nursing infants may be given light breast feedings, instead of fruit, after the preliminary period on orange juice.

    Pleurisy, empyemia, endocarditis (heart inflammation), acute arthritis, menengitis and jaudice will not develop as complications, if the above plan is carried out. Chronic pneumonia, abscess and gangerene, mental disturbances, including temporary delusional insanity and tuberculosis, will not follow as a sequelae.

    PURULENT CONJUCTIVITIS OF THE NEWBORN: This affection, also called ophthalmia neonatorum, is the result of septic infection of the eyes at birth. It is caused by the eyes of the child coming in contact with the diseased vaginal secretions of the mother as the child is passing out of the mother's body. Its symptoms are less violent than purulent conjuctivitis of adults and the consequences are less severe.

    Medical men recognize three sources--i. e., infection by the staphylococcus, pneumococcus and the gonococcus. The gonococcus (in gonorrhea! ophthalmia) is considered the most virulent of these three types of germs.

    Gonorrhea and purulent endometritis (inflammation of the lining of the womb) are considered the chief sources of infection. Someday it will be recognized that a leucorrhea which does not drain well, or which is bound on the mother by pads, will generate enough putresence to infect the eye or eyes of the infant. Indeed, Gould and Pyle say; "severe cases have been caused by the secretions of nonspecific vaginitis." A clean mother cannot infect her child. An unclean mother who throughly douches her vagina immediately before or during labor greatly reduces the likelihood of infection.

    The present-day practice of physicians and nurses of rupturing the "bag-of-waters" as soon as the os uteri is distended, robs the child of part of its natural insulation during passage and, undoubtedly, increases the likelihood of infection. Dry births act in a similar manner.

    The medical notion is that most of these cases are due to gonorrhea in the mother and that, as Dr. Cabot expresses it, ''propel obstetrics and the putting into every new-born baby's eyes a proper antiseptic, will stop the disease in every single case." Practically all of our states have a law requiring the use of an antiseptic in the eyes of every child at birth. How successful this is, is shown by the fact that over half of the cases of blindness are still attributed to Purulent Infantile Ophthalmia, as it was formerly called.

    Dr. Tilden says of the practice: "In these days of much medical delusion we hear that children should have a weak solution of nitrate of silver dropped into their eyes as soon as they are born, to prevent ophthalmia neonatorum--a venereal inflammation of the eyes of newborn babies. Doctors who gain their experience from free clinics, hospitals, and slum practice become deluded with the idea that all mankind are tainted with venereal diseases. Their delusion should not be taken too seriously.

    "There may be a little danger of this infection in the slums, but the danger is nil among the representative, better class of poor as well as among the well-to-do of this country."

    SYMPTOMS: The symptoms are usually less violent and progress less rapidly than in purulent ophthalmia of adults. A few days (two to five), or a week after birth the eyelids become slightly red and swollen, with a purulent secretion. The swelling of the eyelids increases, the conjuctiva becomes greatly infiltrated, swollen, and roughened. The secretion becomes thickened and of a yellow or green color. The disease is self-limited and runs its acute course in four to six days, after which time there is a longer period of mild trouble.

    The cornea soon becomes affected. If the affection of the cornea should result in a scar over the pupil, blindness may result. Even if it is but a small scar there may be a serious impairment of sight.

    One of the first things a medical man does when he is called upon a case of this kind is to make a smear for the bacteriological examination. The condition is seen, at a glance. The diagnosis is easily made. Why, then, the bacteriological test? Because the trouble, in his view, may be due to either one of several types of organisms. But it makes no difference in the treatment which type he finds. The treatment is the same whether he finds the staphylococcus, the pneumococcus, the gonococcus, or some other coccus. Why, then, the test? Echo answers, why?

    PROGNOSIS: Under medical care these cases usually recover in six to eight weeks, although chronic blenorrhea (a purulent discharge) and blindness, due, no doubt, to the suppressive measures employed, are common aftermaths. Medical authorities tell us that "the prognosis depends on the severity and the nature of the infection and the time at which the patient comes under treatment." Dr. Cabot says: "if the disease has taken hold of the baby's eyes, vigorous treatment in a hospital will cure a great many who otherwise would go on to partial or total blindness." The danger of blindness is reduced to almost nil by proper care from the start.

    Dr. Trall, on the other hand, declared, "the common lotions and potions, washes and swashes, are very apt to aggravate the disorder, deform the eyelids, or destroy the sight."

    PREVENTION: Health, cleanliness -- these two words sum up the whole of the work of preventing the condition. The pregnant mother should give more attention to her own health and cleanliness than most of them are willing to devote to these. A clean, healthy mother cannot possibly infect her child. We are frequently told that if we give prospective mothers the necessary knowledge their mother instincts will prompt them to live, eat and care for themselves in a way to insure the highest welfare of their unborn child. This is only partially true. A woman does not lose her love of pleasure, indulgence and indolence and greatly add to her self-control when she becomes pregnant. She is still inclined to follow lines of least resistance.

    Cleanliness of the child's eyes is important. It is unfortunate that mothers and nurses do not know how to thoroughly and properly clean a child's eyes. The poor job that most of them do is lamentable. Nurses are trained to sterilize and not to cleanse the eyes. Dr. Tilden declares that:

    "If the eyes are kept clean--not pretty nearly clean--there will be no excuse for carrying out the medical supersitition of medicating the eyes of every newborn infant with argyrol, to prevent the possibility of ophthalmia neonatorumi--gonorrheal inflammation of the eyes developing; a sort of left-handed compliment that all mothers have gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is a disease of filth, and will end when the human family learns the art of keeping clean (not near clean)."

    The eye; should be carefully cleansed with warm water, using pledgets of absorbent cotton instead of the usual washcloth. Eyes, mouth, anus and genitalia should not be washed with a cloth, for the secretions and excretions from the eyes, nose and mouths of infants should be removed with absorbent cotton and not with the hankerchief. Parents should learn to clean the eyes of a child and not trust a careless or inefficient nurse.

    There should never be any trouble with the eyes of infants except for the careless use of wash-cloths by mothers and nurses. Dr. Tilden says: "Few if any mothers know how throughly to wash a child. When they learn how, there will be fewer blind, deaf, and catarrhal. Skin diseases will disappear if personal liberty ceases to be abrogated by manufacturers of vaccine and serum through their henchmen, the vaccinators, and such diseases as infantile paralysis, meningitis epilepsy, and rheumatism will be heard of no more."

    He also says: "Cleanliness is more far-reaching than prayer under such circumstances. The mother who will neglect her child in every way except prayer will probably send her child to heaven very early.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Prompt and persistent action is necessary in order to prevent infection or possible ulceration of the eyes. Cleanliness is the great desideratum. The swelling of the eye lids closes the eyes, the secretion glues the lids together and drainage is prevented. Herein is the real element of danger.

    The eye lids must be opened and the eyes thoroughly and completely cleansed every two hours day and night. The discharge must not be permitted to become pent up and septic. Drainage is absolutely essential if the eyes are to be saved.

    Medical men employ solutions of silver nitrate, borac acid, bichlorid of mercury, argyrol, and other antiseptics in the eyes. In severe cases ice compresses are constantly applied until the inflammation is suppressed.

    The application of ice to the inflamed lids and eyes has the following distinct disadvantages: It suppresses the inflammatory process, reduces the number of white corpuscles, devitalizes the tissues, reduces resistance to infection and perhaps, also, impairs the antiseptic secretions. Coupled with the frequent employment of antiseptic washes which also devitalize the tissues and lessen resistance to infection, this must favor the spread of the infection.

    The application of the ice bag, by suppressing the inflammation reestablishes drainage and makes it easy to cleanse the eyes. As drainage and cleanliness are the factors most needed, this constitutes a distinct benefit.

    In each case, therefore, the practitioner must carefully weigh the disadvantages and the advantages of the ice pack and decide the procedure in each individually. Where the inflammation is not great enough to materially interfere with drainage the ice pack should certainly be avoided. Where drainage is absent, the ice pack becomes the lesser of two evils and should be chosen. It should be understood, however, as suppression and the after-care carefully provided for.

    Thin pledgets of cotton are placed over the eyes (over the affected eye if only one is infected) and so arranged that no weight rests on the eye. Small pieces of ice are placed on the cotton and renewed when necessary. This should not be carried further than is essential to insure drainage and perfect cleanliness.

    Dr. Trall said: "the eyes should be bathed several times a day in moderately tepid water at first, and finally as cold as may be found consistent with comfortable sensations after the application."

    Some drugless healers use lemon juice solutions in bathing the eyes, while others resort to the antiseptics. Dr. Tilden advises a salt water solution.

    If one is not fully free of fear of germs, argyrol is probably the least harmful of the antiseptics and is usually employed in a 10 per cent solution, although this is probably too strong.

    Thorough washing with plain warm water is probably enough. But the germ theory has so frightened everyone, even the drugless men who profess not to accept it, that men and women lack the courage to depend on cleanliness. Indeed, they do not know what cleanliness is; they think only in terms of sterility and antiseptics. Trall and others who lived before the germ theory produced the present insanity, cleansed the eyes of these cases with plain water and enjoyed a remarkable success. The water did not injure the eyes, while, unlike the present anti-septic practice, germs never become adapted to cleanliness as they do to anti-steptics. I say germs, because I find Naturopaths, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, etc., all accepting the germ theory and living in constant dread of their activities.

    Cleanliness is the great need. The secretions must not be permitted to become pent-up and force absorption after they have become septic. An aseptic condition must be maintained, as far as possible, until recovery is complete. This is all there is to be done. Nature alone does the healing. Vigilance should not be relaxed at any time. Where but one eye of the child is affected every precaution should be used to prevent the infection from reaching the other eye, and to prevent it from reaching the nose and mouth. The child's hands must not be permited to rub its eyes and then be carried to its mouth.

    Attendants should use every precaution not to infect their own eyes, or the eyes of others. Strict cleanliness on their own account should be the rule.

    SORE EYES--Catarrhal conjunctivitis-- is a catarrhal inflammation of the lining membranes of the lids and globe of the eyes.

    SYMPTOMS: The trouble begins with dryness and smarting of the eyes, as though there is something in the eyes. Swelling of the lids follows and then there comes an abundant secretion of water, then mucous, and lastly, muco-pus. Feeding and drugging increase the suffering and prolong the trouble.

    CAUSES: Enervation and toxemia build a catarrhal state of the body which finally involves the mucous surfaces of the body. Excesses of sugar, syrup, candy, bread, cereal, etc., are the chief causes of this catarrhal condition. The condition frequently becomes chronic due to chronic provocation.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: Stop all food until the inflammation subsides. Keep the eyes cleansed with warm water, use no salt, soap, borac acid, or other antiseptics. After the inflammation has subsided, put the child on a fruit diet until all symptoms of the trouble have cleared up. Feed properly thereafter.

    Chronic conjunctivitis should be cared for in much the same manner, but it will usually require longer time. Repeated short fasts with a rigid diet between these will finally remedy the trouble.

    SORE MOUTH (Apthoe, thrush, canker stomatitis) is nicely divided by medical men into five different kinds of stomatitis; these kinds representing degrees of severity. It is the first evidence of acid poisoning and scurvy.

    Catarrhal stomatitis is a simple inflammation of a part or of the entire surface of the mouth. It occurs most commonly during the period of the first dentition and results from wrong feeding and uncleanliness. It may also be present in fevers, and is quite commonly present in gastro-intestinal disorders.

    The mouth is dry, hot and red with an increased flow of saliva. The tongue is coated, there is constipation or diarrhea, thirst, and slight fever. Nursing is quite painful and should be omitted. The condition lasts from three or four days to a week.

    The calomel and alkaline mouth washes usually employed in these cases cannot be too strongly condemned.

    Aphthous stomatitis is a little worse stage of catarrhal stomatitis There is hyperemia (excess of blood) in the mucous membrane of the mouth, with the formation of small, yellowish-white vesicles commonly called fever-blisters. It is a self-limited affection and is caused by bad hygiene, improper feeding and lack of cleanliness.

    Boric acid and sodium salicylate mouth washes, commonly advised, should be religiously avoided.

    Ulcerative stomatitis differs from the above only in that it is severe enough to produce ulceration. Ulcers may form anywhere in the mouth, but form chiefly on the gums.

    The gums are red and swollen and there is considerable pain. There is a profuse flow of acid, irritating and offensive saliva (salivation), a foul breath and hemorrhages from the mucous surfaces on pressure.

    This condition develops in scurvy and other severe types of malnutrition, and in the so-called infectious diseases. Mercury is a potent cause. Improper feeding, and uncleanliness are chief causes where mercury can be excluded.

    Mouth washes made of borax, salicylate of sodium or hydrogen dioxid, are commonly used. These should be avoided. Potassium chlorate, commonly administered internally, should also be avoided.

    Gangernous stomatitis (noma, nancrum oris) is a still more severe type of the above condition and develops in greatly debilitated children and in maltreated cases of "infectious" fevers.

    These cases are very rare and usually terminate in death in from a few days to two or three weeks. I have never known of a case cared for hygienically and cannot say what we may expect from natural measures. But I am sure that if recovery is possible these methods would be far better than the tonics and operations employed by medical men.

    In these cases there is gangrenous destruction of the tissues of the cheek and perhaps also of other adjacent structures.

    PARASITIC STOMATITIS (Thrush) is a catarrhal inflammation of the mouth and tongue. The membrane is dotted with white flake-like patches which are claimed to be due to the presence of a vegetable parasite (a mold fungi) called by such good English names as Saccharomyces albicans and oidium albicans. It is due to faulty feeding and lack of cleanliness.

    MERCURIAL STOMATITIS, commonly called salivation is inflammation of the mouth, tongue and salivary glands, due to calomel or other form of mercury taken internally through any channel.

    Its symptoms are fetid breath, swollen and spongy gums, sore and loosened teeth, a profuse tenacious saliva, inflammation of the membranes of the mouth, a strong metalic taste in the mouth, headache, insomnia and emaciation. Severe cases go on to ulceration of the jaw bone and the falling out of the teeth. Gangrenous stomatitis is frequently due to mercury.

    Dr. Tilden says: "I began to practice my profession long enough ago to witness little children pick their own teeth out of their sloughing gums, made so by the use of calomel."

    He tells us also that "fear of water drinking by sick people we. developed in those days" and that "water was forbidden all fever patients because their systems were filled with mercury (calomel) and when mercury is in water must stay out; if not, salivation--mercurial poisoning--takes place." All of this is the result of curing one disease by producing another, and of the principle that "our strongest poisons are our best remedies." The destructive effects of mercury are not confined to the mouth. For a full account of its many evils, I refer the reader to my Natural Cure of Syphilis.

    After producing this disease with mercury, doctors treat it with antiseptic mouth-washes and the iodide. Beware of both of these. Better still, beware of all drugs including mercury in all of its forms.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: all forms of stomatitis are to be treated alike with assurance that all cases, except perhaps many cases of the gangrenous type, will recover . Many cases of mercurial poisoning will leave the teeth permanently loosened and injured. Many cases of pyorrhea are due to mercury.

    The mouth should be frequently cleansed with plain water or with dilute lemon juice or fresh pineapple juice.

    All food should be with-held until the inflammation has completely subsided. In mercurial poisoning little or no water should be taken.

    If there is fever or maliase, the child should be kept in bed and made comfortable.

    Follow this with a fruit diet for a few days after which return to a normal diet. Fruit juices are the best remedies for the dyscrasia back of the sore mouth.

    ST. VITUS DANCE (chorea): This is a nervous derangement and develops largely in those of the neurotic diathesis-- a tendency to disease of a nervous type. Osler tells us that it is often found in "abnormally bright, active-minded children belonging to families with pronounced neurotic taint."

    Chorea is caused by anything that will use up the child's nervous powers and impair its health. Good general health, based on natural hygiene, is the best protection against chorea. Dr. Bendix says: "Anemic, scrofulous and debilitated children, as well as those children who have become weakened by acute or chronic disease and nutritive disturbances, are unquestionably affected by chorea more frequently than those who are robust. Therefore anaemic, chlorotic conditions, exhaustive diseases, rapid growth, improper nourishment, the influence of school and other factors, appear to be favourable media for the development of this affection."

    Cases following scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, etc., must be attributed to the suppressive drugging and the inoculations commonly employed in these conditions.

    Chorea develops most frequently from the ages of seven to fifteen, although it may develop as early as two years. From seven to fifteen when the "deleterious influence of school life makes great demand on the youthful organism," it is most common.

    Night-lessons or "home work" keep children's noses buried forever in their books. There is no time for play; no time to get out-doors. A child, unless he is exceptionally bright, either neglects his home work or else he neglects more important things. The mills of education grind slowly but they grind exceedingly anemic. The nervous, anemic, mentally and physically stunted products of this senseless process are unfitted for the burdens of life. Sir. Wm. Osler says:

    "The strain of education, particularly in girls during the third hemidecade, is a most important factor in the etiology of this disease. Bright, intelligent, active-minded girls from the age of ten to fourteen, ambitious to do well at school, often stimulated in their efforts by teachers and parents, form a large contingent of the cases of chorea in the hospital and private practice. Sturgis has called attention to this school-made chorea as one serious evil in our modern method of forced education." ### "So frequently in children of this class does the attack of chorea date from the worry and strain incident to school examinations that the competition for prizes and places should be emphatically forbidden."

    This condition is often attributed to tonsillar troubles and "rheumatic" affections. There is nothing to this however. They are not causes of the chorea.

    Fear, excitement, masturbation, overfeeding, wrong feeding sugar-excess, lack of rest and sleep, undue fatigue, ghost stories, harsh treatment--"punishment"--all help to bring on nervous derangement.

    SYMPTOMS: The disease manifests in all degrees, ranging from mild to severe and even manical forms. Jerky, twitching movements, restlessness, inability to keep still, and ungraceful movements in getting about are seen in mild stages.

    The severe form is more distressing. The involuntary contractions of its various groups of muscles partially disable the child, which must have some help in attending to itself and its daily tasks These symptoms are all greatly exaggerated in the manical forms and the child requires constant supervision.

    Pains in the limbs and joints and disturbances of the heart attest to the general impairment of the child's health. Fits of crying, loss of temper, irritability, and a general lack of mental and physical poise indicate an unbalanced "psychic" life and a profound impairment of the nervous system.

    MEDICAL ABUSE: The medical abuse of these cases is appalling. Dr. Osler says: "Medical treatment of this disease is unsatisfactory; with the exception of arsenic no remedy seems to have any influence in controlling the processes of the affection." Of course, arsenic it not a remedy for anything, unless death may be regarded as a cure. Not all doctors share Osler's skepticism and they do not hesitate to dope and drug these children as long as the money and patience of the parents hold out. For instance, in his Diseases of Children, Dr. Jacobi says:

    "The best remedy for mild and severe cases is arsenic. The liquor potassii arsenitis should be given three times a day after meals, amply diluted in water. The doses should be slightly increased from day to day, and may reach the double or threefold quantity; for instance, half on ounce may be mixed with one ounce of water. The initial dose of one--six drops may be seven drops, eight drops, nine drops, etc., up to fifteen or twenty or more, a drop to be added every consecutive day. If symptoms of over-dosing appear, edema of the eyelids or face, intestinal disturbance, eruptions, no increase would be allowed, or the dose slightly diminished. When no effect is attained, the dose was too small. Medicine should be given for effect or not at all. A dose of antipyrin with a bromid, or codein, will secure a good night's rest. When chorea persists in the night, rest must be enforced by chloral and a bromid. Bad cases must be made to sleep from fourteen to eighteen hours daily."

    It is not Dr. Jacobi who is forced to take these dangerous drugs so freely. It is not he who has to stay in a stupor (it is not sleep) produced by chloral and bromid, fourteen to eighteen hours a day. It is not his nervous system that is wrecked by such criminal treatment. It is your child and not the doctor who is submitted to this damaging abuse. No sane doctor or parent can approve of such mad-house processes as Dr. Jacobi advises.

    CARE OF THE PATIENT: The key to the proper care of these cases lies in the fact that the nervous twitching and other symptoms are seldom present during sleep. Rest in this, as in all nervous cases, is the great desideratum. The child should be put to bed and kept there until all twitchings and convulsive movements are throughly controlled.

    Everything that tends to excite or disturb the child should be excluded from his environment. Noise, bright lights, quarrelsome people and other disturbing factors should not be permitted in the child's room.

    When the child is put to bed, he should also be placed upon a fast. No food should be allowed for at least a week. The fast may be carried further if the child's condition warrants.

    After the fast the child should be placed upon a fruit diet for from a week to ten days.

    If after a week to ten days on fruit, the nervousness is overcome and the child has control over its movements a normal diet, as described in this book, may be fed to the child.

    After all symptoms are overcome, exercise, sunshine, fresh air, play and outdoor life will rapidly restore the child to full health. All factors that impair health and weaken the nervous system should be corrected in the child's life. If the child is of school age, it certainly should not be re-entered in school until it is fully recovered.

    THUMB SUCKING is not a disease. It is merely a habit. Dr. Wood-Comstock advises keeping the infants and children in a sleeping bag. She also advises striking the baby on the hands. Both methods are barbaric and she attempts to justify them on the grounds of discipline. Dr. Lowry says: "Various methods have been tried to break this habit of sucking the thumb but I have yet to learn of any reliable method."

    Bitter substances, pepper and other things are often put on the fingers. The fingers are sometimes bandaged for a time. None of these are valuable.

    The thumb sucking habit is simply a bad mental habit. It does not deform or distort the mouth or teeth. It does not cause tonsillar troubles. The same is true of the "pacifier" or nipple. But there is no need for such habits.

    The thumb sucking tendency is easily checked if it is attended to at once. Take the baby's finger or thumb out of its mouth every time it puts these in and watch that it does not go to sleep with the finger in its mouth. Persist in your efforts and you will succeed. Dr. Lowry tells of a mother who broke this habit of her child by constant watchfulness for two weeks, "taking the thumb out every time it went into the baby's mouth."

    VOMITING in infants is often the first symptom of acute disease. It is a means of emptying the stomach preparatory to the work in hand. NO FOOD SHOULD BE GIVEN THE SICK CHILD.

    Vomiting, when there are no other symptoms of illness, simply means indigestion from food-excess or from wrong food. It is thought to be due to excesses of fat and sugar more often than to excesses of protein.

    When due to an excess of fat the vomitus often has a rancid odor.

    When due to an excess of sugar it is strongly acid and is apt to smell like vinegar.

    In either case, food should be withheld and the child allowed to rest. Not even water should be given while the child is vomiting. Do not give soda or other drug.

    "WORMS will never trouble a well-fed child," says Dr. Page. "Indigestible food or overeating is usually the cause of these 'natural scavengers;' Bread, of unbolted grain, ripe fruits, and vegetables, simply boiled or baked, infrequent meals and temperance, constitute a plan of medication that is death on worms, and better than all the nostrums and vermifuges in existence."

    The powders and medicines used to destroy worms upset the stomach and intestines of children and seldom hurt the worms.

    Most cases of "worms" are not worms. The following symptoms of worms are the most common ones: Fretfulness, crying fits, great irritability, nervousness; intense pain under the navel, vomiting (in some cases), disturbed sleep, grinding of the teeth in sleep, tossing in sleep, fits and convulsions. The child may awake with fits and starts.

    These symptoms may all be caused by over-eating with no worms present. They are symptoms of indigestion.

    Worms and parasites find lodgement in the human intestine only after these organs and their secretions have been weakened and depraved. Enervation and wrong eating give them a chance to live in our bodies. Candy, sugar, butter, jam, jelly, yeast bread, etc., and general lack of cleanliness are the chief causes.

    A fast and a fruit diet is the immediate remedy. After the worms are banished, proper feeding and better hygiene will prevent a recurrence of the trouble.

    Only those have tapeworm, hookworm and other intestinal parasites whose digestive secretions have lost their defensive potencies. Only those harbor germs whose secretions have lost their immunizing powers. To cure such, we must do more than get rid of the worms and germs. Such a procedure only brings the body back to where it was before the infestation took place and leaves the way open for reinfestation. These people need to have their health built up, so that their lost self-protective powers are restored. Until the broken-down-defenders are restored and normal resistance rebuilt, no true cure can be claimed. This restoration of the body-defenses cannot be accomplished by artificial measures of any kind.