Wisdom vs. foolishness
Henry D. Perky





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The PerK' Publishing Co.. wcrcster. Mass.



Copyright, 1902, by Henry D. Perky. All Rights Reserved
Published April, 1902









Why does one climate and one soil endue
The blushing poppy with a crimson hue,
Yet leave the lily pale, and tinge the violet bl





Introduction
It was circumstances that, ten years ago, led the
author to begin an investigation of the causes of man's
"many infirmities," and more particularly those in-
firmities which are directly traceable to malnutrition,
or a species of starvation, while there was an abun-
dance of properfood for all. Numerous lectures on the
subject in the past several years was a result of
this investigation. And there is no other reason to
offer the reader for this publication than that many
requests were received for copies of these lectures,
two of which, with some changes, appear in this
book, and others will be printed from time to time
in this form.
The subject of the first one, "Nutrition as a Tooth-
builder," was given at Providence, Rhode Island, at
a convention of the New England Dental Association,
in September, 1900, and afterwards in my course of
lectures on " History of Foods," at Oread Institute of
Domestic Science, at Worcester, Massachusetts. I
shall endeavor to support my views as to the impor-
tance of this subject by a communication by William
Hunter, M. D., F. R. C. P., to the "Practitioner,"
published by Cassell & Co., London, England, Decem-
ber, 1900. Though the communication of Dr. Hunter
is lengthy, it is given in full, and, while it does not
touch upon the food question, it makes plain the
enormity of the offense of those responsible for poor
teeth, and it is for this reason mainly the article is


6
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
here reproduced. It is good reading for doctors, den-
tists, teachers, pastors and parents. Dr. Hunter has
under consideration the consequences of poor teeth as
manifested in most unfortunateconditions and suffer-
ing, and gives examples which are the result of avoid-
ableerror. Man should have sound teeth, and hemay
have. It is for the parents of children to determine.
The burden, however, falls upon the mother. The
father is in "business." He has no time in this age
of rush and push to inform himself on this subject.
He is the victim of an age of commerce, and so is his
child. When wealth-getting is uppermost in the minds
of a people, they degenerate.
In my second lecture, which was also given at
Oread Institute, the thought was to interest the
pastor and the teacher, and to thus aid in creating
a public sentiment in this direction. The subject:
"Duty of Pastor and Teacher in Relation to the Food
Subject."
Benjamin Franklin taught that good morals re-
sulted from proper food, and both Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson criticized a system of education and
code of morals or religion that was so formal as to
be lacking in those essentials that make the true man.
The "good book" teaches us, "Thou shalt not
eat any abominable thing." From this (a very good
text for our ministers) we learn that there is wisdom
in selection. It is fair, too, I presume, to conclude
that a food that causes the mouth, the fountain, or
source, whence food enters the body, to be foul with
decayed teeth, is abominable; and none the less abom-
inable is afood which causes indigestion, rheumatism,
diabetes, or any of the many ills of the flesh. The


INTRODUCTION
7
conflict of opinion from innumerable so-called scien-
tific sources leaves the superficial investigator of the
food subject in doubt and in trouble, and well may
parents without the opportunity to investigate cry
out, "How shall we know what to provide for our-
selves and children?" There is plenty of food, and
proper food, but it is the acquired habit that will be
found the greatest obstacle. See that your food is
the natural product, be firm in the faith that there
was ample provision made whereby a man may be a
man. Hold fast to this potent truth. Above all, quit
fretting about what you eat, and this you may do
when you accept the truth that the chemistry of
Nature is the only method, even divine in origin, to
gather together from the air and the earth the prop-
erties, and in the process of growth organize them
exactly suited for the purposes for which food is
intended. We do know, from a study of the history
of foods of the different civilizations, and from the
experiences of the peoples of the world, and the con-
clusion is irresistible, that man must eat natural
foods or degenerate, and finally through unnecessary
suffering, prematurely die. How different with the
man who has availed himself of his opportunities.
And while it would be gratifying to know all the
reasons why sound teeth and good health result from
the use of natural foods, and why the same chemical
properties in a disorganized or separated state do not
answer the purpose as food, it would be foolish to
deprive ourselves of what has been proven to be
good, simply because we cannot fully understand
what to man's senses are regarded as the mysteries
of Nature.


8
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
"Why does one climate and one soil endue
The blushing poppy with a crimson hue,
Yet leave the lily pale, and tinge the violet blue?"
If we know not why, we nevertheless may, and should
and do enjoy these incomparable products and gifts
of natural organization. And so we may enjoy the
food products, even to developing the perfect man,
the highest expression of Supreme Intelligence.
In ancient times history was recorded in painting
and sculpture. There were no printing presses then.
In a great degree this was manifested in the construc-
tion of the Ducal Palace at Venice, which was cen-
turies building. In the fourteenth century a part of
the palace, requiring eighteen pillars, was erected.
On the capitals of these pillars the sculptor cut his
designs in marble, and thus aided in perpetuating the
history of the then prospering republic. On the cap-
ital of the fourth pillar, in marble, appear the heads
of children, representative of the fourteenth century.
In the next century another part of the palace was
built, also requiring eighteen pillars, and on the cap-
ital of one of them appear, in marble, the faces of
children of the fifteenth century. I had the capitals
of the pillars of both centuries photographed, and
prints of them, somewhat restored, will be found
between pages 38 and 39.
Ruskin, in "The Stones of Venice," has this to
say about these children: "It is highly interesting to
compare the child of the fourteenth century with the
child of the fifteenth century. The early heads are
full of youthful life, playful, humane, affectionate,
beaming with sensation and vivacity, but with much
manliness and firmness, also not a little cunning, and


INTRODUCTION
9
some cruelty, perhaps, beneath all; the features small
and hard, and the eyes keen. There is the making of
rough and great men in them. But the children of
the fifteenth century are dull and smooth-faced dunces,
without a single meaning line in the fatness of their
stolid cheeks; and, although in the vulgar sense as
handsome as the other children are ugly, capable of
becoming nothing but perfumed coxcombs."
Is this bit of history not a warning to the man
who is too busy in commercial pursuits—in making
money—to come to understand the food subject or
the deficiencies in our school curriculums? If he cares
not for himself, how about the children he brings
into the world without their consent, and then in
ignorance permits, if not quite compels, an environ-
ment that makes impossible on proper lines, either
physical, mental or moral development?
If the cost to know the truth is great, it is infi-
nitely greater not to know the truth as to the value
of the food we eat. Not to understand the value of
the food we eat leaves us subject to the effects of an
active ignorance, which is always dangerous.
What we learn of value, on the subject of food
for man, is mainly from the experiences of the indi-
vidual person or community of people rather than
from so-called scientific sources. What we must learn
at great cost is to unlearn what we have been taught,
for our education on this subject has been most thor-
ough in the matter of suppressing unerring instinct,
and creating appetites for things unnatural. We
choose the food we do for no other reason than that
we have been thus taught, and therefore have no
better guide than the educated palate. The result is


10
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
appalling. And is it not strange that out of the ex-
periences in intense suffering and bodily disfigurement
this lesson is learned? The processes by which the
body of the healthy, rigorous man and woman are
built are in harmony with simple and unalterable
laws. To violate these laws means disaster. The
understanding and observance of these laws simplifies
the duties of those who are charged with the respon-
sibility of selecting and preparing food suitable for
the purposes intended. It is not so difficult to become
possessed of a sufficient knowledge of these laws for
all practical purposes as it is to become possessed of
a sufficient power and moral courage to get rid of the
appetites which our false teaching and years of habit
have fastened upon us.
Here is the law: "Naturally organized food makes
possible natural conditions; there is no other way."
This law is written in the history of the peoples of
all the civilizations of the world.
Foods are often so only in name. The law in the
case will not permit of disassociating naturally allied
properties which in the process of growth are com-
bined in food for man in Nature's perfect laboratory.
This work of disassociating is the exclusive function
of the organs of the body in the processes of digestion;
and it is thus the living principle, whether it be called
nutrient, energy, electricity or something else, is liber-
ated from the storehouse of abundance within the
body under conditions as to degrees of temperature,
etc., to make the properties in proper food available.
While the ingenuity of man is great, he cannot make
a grain of wheat. Its origin is Divine. Nor can he
take a part of the properties of a grain of wheat and


INTRODUCTION
11
a part of the properties of any other naturally organ-
ized food product, or whether naturally organized or
not, and combine these properties suited to man's
condition as a food. When you take chlorine from
common table salt you have sodium left, a metal with
not the semblance of salt either in appearance or effect.
So it is with all of Nature's ample provision of food
products, they are perfectly suited to man's require-
ments when in their natural state, but unsuited in a
disorganized state.
Noah either did not understand this law or defied
its power, when he took the fermented extract
from the grape rather than the naturally organ-
ized and perfect whole grape. Noah thus made
an example for all the world and for all time and his
mistake is recorded in ancient and modern history
and in paintings and sculptures. Opposite page 14
may be found an illustration of Noah's predicament
and his sons' humiliation. This illustration is also
made from a photograph of the capital of a pilaster
and support of the vine angle in the Ducal Palace at
Venice. Observe the sons ashamed of and reproving
the father. It often occurs that the father is ashamed
of and reproves the son for the same reason; but
it should be kept in mind that the father is also
somebody's son and the product of his parents.
Strong drink is the result of an educated palate, and
an appetite which is but a craving for a stimulant
due to a diet that failed to nourish; and its increasing
use keeps pace with the increasing use of other dis-
organized and unnatural food and drink.
How helpless and dependent are children whose
education as to their taste and choice of foods is



NOAH'S INTOXICATION AND HIS SONS' HUMILIATION


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 19
that was as marvelous as that so extensively and
successfully employed by the Egyptians; and because
of this knowledge, archaeological research among the
dry bones of the Andes has brought to our sight the
skeletons of the men who lived at least twelve centu-
ries ago. In a sense the physical remains of these
remote Peruvians are more than mere skeletons, for
in each individual instance the flesh still adheres to
the bones, though dried to a crisp. Upon some there
yet remains the hair of the head, still retaining its
color. But what relates more particularly to our
subject is the fact that scarcely without exception
each skull presents a complete set of teeth. In only
one or two instances is a tooth gone and that has
been lost by the breaking away of that portion of the
bony socket in which it rested. Taking the Peruvian
collection of skeletons as a whole, the teeth may be
called perfect so far as their formation goes. In the
department of comparative anatomy in the building
of the Boston Natural History Society are to be seen
skulls also of ancient and prehistoric Peruvians, and
in these are complete and wonderfully well-formed
teeth. Here is to be found also the skull of an Egyp-
tian mummy showing evidence of great age, yet the
teeth are all present and perfect in this skull in spite
of the thousands of years that have passed since it
was endowed with life. And here is to be seen the skull
of an Ashante negro with every tooth intact, sound
and fully developed, and it seems fair to presume rep-
resentative of the race of the west coast of Africa.
Still continuing a tour of the Boston Natural History
Society's rooms a skeleton of a Hottentot, "the yellow
fellow" of South Africa, is found. The conditions


20 WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
under which the Hottentot existed when in life were
materially different from those of the Ashante negro.
The climates of the two countries diner, and so do the
foods, at least to an appreciable extent, yet with the
Hottentot skeleton, as with that of the Ashante negro,
every tooth is present in the skull, and the teeth are
notably perfect, regular and sound. From South
Africa to the island of Hawaii is a long distance, but
it is desirable in this consideration to present infor-
mation from as many points of the world as practi-
cable, and thereby make the conclusions as credible
and valuable as circumstances will admit. To this
end the next illustration is that of a skeleton of an
Hawaiian woman. How long ago she lived there are
no means of knowing, but there is some evidence
of a considerable age of the skeleton, and, as it shows
a full quota of teeth which are as white as ivory, I
conclude that the skeleton is not that of a modern-
day Hawaiian, as the Hawaiians of to-day have
teeth which lead to the suspicion that they are becom-
ing Americanized in more ways than one. In this
building are also numerous skulls of American Indians.
The teeth in these are almost all remarkably alike for
completeness, beauty of form and symmetry, and
present evidence of general excellence. Indeed, of all
the teeth I have observed in a wide range of races,
civilized and uncivilized, there are none that surpass
those of the aborigines of North America. In the
Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard Univer-
sity is to be seen a complete skeleton of a Sioux
Indian. The teeth are such as will please the eye of
anyone, so perfect is their formation. While a single
one or a score of instances do not establish the fact


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 21
that the teeth of all Indians are good, it may be sug-
gested that probably no one has ever seen decayed
teeth in a full-blooded American Indian, provided he
lived after the manner of the race and free from the
ways of the white man. Under the laws of nature
such a thing as defective teeth in an American Indian
living as he did before the advent of the white man
would be an exception, for unhandicapped by man,
nature in working out results is infallible. As I un-
derstand the history of all uncivilized races existing
under purely aboriginal conditions, they had and
maintained properly developed teeth.
Turning from the human to the brute creation for
a further exemplification of the durability of the teeth,
we find in both wild and domesticated animals, evi-
dence, practically inexhaustible, that when the teeth
are built and sustained in accordance with the laws
of nature they are as permanent, as free from defec-
tion, and as capable of as great duration as any bone
in the structure. In the building of the Boston Nat-
ural History Society and in the Museum of Compara-
tive Zoology at Harvard University are vast collec-
tions of the skeletons and skulls of wild and domesti-
cated animals of every clime and zone. The teeth in
all these have no more indication of decomposition
than any other bone in the skeletons.
Having considered examples of the durability of
teeth from various races, your attention is invited to
the materials from which they are built, the sources
whence these materials come, and the laws concerning
their utilization in building, maintaining and preserv-
ing these important factors in, to our understanding,
the somewhat complicated system of digestion.


22
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
Chemistry teaches that the teeth are calcified
organs, that the dentine which forms the bulk of the
crown and root of a tooth is composed of about
three-fourths mineral or earthy matter to one-fourth
animal matter, that the enamel of the crown, which,
by the way is the hardest part of a tooth and the
hardest substance of the body, provided its formation
is natural, contains almost ninety-seven per cent, of
mineral salts and only a little above three per cent,
of animal matter. This mineral matter that consti-
tutes so large a proportion of the teeth is composed
of the salts of lime, chiefly the phosphate of lime.
The anatomical relation of the teeth to the general
organism of the body, has been mentioned in connec-
tion with the pulp in its cavity in the interior of the
tooth from which is secreted the dentine, the enamel
and the cementum which forms the surface of the root
of the tooth.
The pulp comprises the nerve and blood-vessels of
the tooth, and is connected with the general organism
of the body by a delicate tissue passing through the
root lengthwise. In plain terms the pulp of the
tooth may be styled a distributing reservoir, its
special purpose being to supply the dentine, enamel,
and other portions of the tooth with their mineral
and animal substances. Now, the existence of a dis-
tributing reservoir presupposes a main source of sup-
ply with direct communication between the two.
Through the channel uniting the main and distribut-
ing reservoirs the properties desired is expected to
pass. In nature the laws governing supply and
demand are fixed and absolute. When the supply of
the salts of lime and other substances ceases, then the


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 23
pulp ceases the work of tooth-building. The teeth no
longer fed become devitalized. The process of decay
ensues and continues until the loss is entire. They
simply die. The primary cause of this decay and loss
of the teeth with attendant misery, suffering, and loss
of health, is nothing less than starvation of the
teeth. They died because they had not sufficient
nourishment, even though the stomach of the body of
which they were a part was gorged with food. It
mattered not so long as this food did not contain the
particular nutritive substances the teeth required, for
in nature there are no compromises—no substitutes.
Whence do the teeth get their lime and other sub-
stances? In the food we eat and by proper digestion
make possible of appropriation. The philosophy of
living as regards the sustenance of the body is eating
under proper conditions sufficient food containing the
nutritive constituents essential to the nourishment of
every organ and portion of the body. This declara-
tion I have simplified by the statement that "naturally
organized foods make possible natural conditions," to
which I add and am justified in adding the phrase,
"and there is no other way." This is our platform in
our crusade of education for proper living by proper
foods. The beauty and strength of all nature lies in
its simplicity, and in no other phase of nature is this
simplicity more manifest or more plainly to be observed
and understood than in the lesson I have for years
labored to spread throughout the land that naturally
organized foods make possible natural conditions;
and there is no other way.
All foods as they come from the laboratory of
nature are naturally organized, yet it is not to


24
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
be understood by this that each in itself contains
all the nutritive properties in correct proportions
for the complete nourishment of the body. There
must be a combination and a variety of properties
in food to answer the purposes of perfect physical
nourishment. However, this much can be said that
in the grains, wheat, Indian corn, rice, rye, barley and
oats, there is a decided approximation toward a com-
plete food. Wheat is shown by analysis and by the
experiences of various civilizations to stand at the
head of all grains available for a universal food. The
nutritive values of Indian corn and rye are also ex-
tremely high. Wheat was an important part of the
food of the Egyptians long laefore the time of Moses.
The people inhabiting the earth, from the earliest
account until comparatively recent times, lived upon
fruit, nuts and vegetables. Egypt has always been a
land of fruit, grain and vegetables, and the annual
inundations of the Nile have served to maintain the
soil in the highest state of fertility. The Egyptians,
whose mummies are found in museums and natural
history rooms throughout America and Europe, had
full sets of sound and fully developed teeth. This we
know, for they are to be seen, and that, too, in bodies
from which life departed two, three and even five
thousand years before the dawn of the Christian era.
Those Egyptians lived upon naturally organized foods
that made possible natural conditions. Wheat and
barley, grapes, figs and pomegranates, cucumbers and
melons, onions, leeks and garlics. These last three it
will be remembered the Israelites murmured for as
Moses was piloting them through the wilderness
from Egypt into the land of promise.


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 25
What do we mean by fertility of the soil? Simply
an abundance of proper food to the end that it shall
give up abundant harvests and thus fully respond
for the purposes intended in the unerring economy
of nature. Nature asserts, with a positiveness that
men take heed of, in the matter of plant life, no
matter what its kind, that it can not attain its per-
fection unless the soil in which it is planted con-
tains a requisite supply of necessary ingredients.
Nature fertilizes the Nile Valley, but the soil of New
England and most other countries, except where
there is yet to be found a virgin soil, needs man's
aid to supply plant food. These ingredients taken
up and organized by plant life serve in turn as food
for man and beast. The intelligent agriculturist
recognizes the wisdom of feeding to the land proper
food in proper amount that the plant growth may be
proper food for his horses and cattle. But while we
are careful to supply our fields with fertilizers contain-
ing the manufacturer's and dealer's guaranteed per-
centages of potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and
our horses and cattle with like assured requisite
amounts of protein, fat, cellulose and free extract
matter in food-stuffs, we give too little thought to the
composition of food for ourselves and families. While
the National and State Governments are expending
millions of dollars annually to learn how best to feed
the land, and to ascertain exactly what constitutes
a balanced ration for a cow, horse, pig, or hen, com-
paratively little is expended by them, at least in a
direct or practical way, to learn what is properly
balanced food for man. For the year 1899 the
National Government gave to the State of Massa-


28
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
whiteness would cause envy in the belle of the present-
day civilization. So also was it as respects the teeth
of the American Indian in his native environment.
His food contained all the life-giving principles stored
therein by nature, and when the Indian ate his corn
from the ear or coarsely ground in some rude mortar,
he was forced to chew it well before swallowing. The
American Indian has been for centuries a product, in
the main, of the corn indigenous to America. The nuts
and fruits and game he ate in addition were all as nature
planned and organized them. The Scriptures tell us
that when Moses, in the exodus from Egypt, died on
the threshold of the Promised Land "his eye was not
dim nor his natural force abated." If the natural force
of Moses before his death was not abated he must
have then had good and natural teeth. The Mosaic
laws of diet and sanitation given to the Israelites are
still in force among the Hebraic races, and statis-
tics show that the Jews are the longest-lived civilized
people in the world. I have no data to prove that
the Old Testament Israelites had good teeth, but
President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University assures
me that the exhumations of all ancient peoples show
that all had perfect teeth. History teaches that in
centuries preceding the present, mankind lived upon
naturally organized food, and therefore I am confi-
dent they had sound teeth. In the brute creation of
past and present, domesticated or untamed, it is
rare that an instance of an unsound tooth is found.
There may be abnormalities of birth, disease, or acci-
dent, but the well-nigh universal rule is normal teeth,
sound and regular. Dr. George P. Penniman of Wor-
cester, one of the most successful veterinarians in


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 29
Massachusetts, and known to the profession through-
out the country, tells me that the freedom from caries
and other diseases of the teeth in domestic animals is
wonderful in its degree; but only wonderful, of course,
as you compare the teeth of the brute with the
defective teeth of the man that has dominion over
him, but seemingly not over himself. Dr. L. W. Curtis
of Southbridge, a physician and surgeon of fifty-five
years' practice, who has had unusual facilities for
noting the characteristics of all kinds of domestic
animals as well as men, gives the same kind of testi-
mony in like emphatic, positive manner.
In the rooms of the Boston Natural History
Society is the skeleton of a horse that died at the age
of forty-two years. The teeth are all present, and not
one of them shows any impairment of any kind.
This horse had to work all his days after he was
broken to harness. For eight years he was a stage
horse on an old Boston and Roxbury line. Then for
twenty-five years he was a street-car horse on the
West End Company's line from Boston to Brookline.
After his service on the street-car, "Old Billy," as he
was called, was set to work in the West End Com-
pany's stable, and so continued until his death. He
did not spend his last days in idleness, but "kept in
harness" to the end. His natural food enabled him to
work, and work is necessary to the assimilation of
even good food. No man or beast can five their natural
length of days when once the teeth are unsound.
Naturally organized foods make possible natural
conditions, and this includes, of course, good teeth. But
what are naturally organized foods? They are those
which in the process of growth have extracted from


30
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
the earth and the air, and compounded and organized
in nature's perfect laboratory all the properties neces-
sary to build the body in all its parts in normal and
therefore perfect form and condition. The attempt to
improve, on this perfect building material, is largely
the cause of physical degeneracy the evidence of which
is prominently manifest in poor teeth. Animal life in
its wild and untamed state fulfills the law of nature as
regards the foods whereby it is sustained. There is
a diligent search for a supply, and when once this is
secured it is not only as nature formed and perfected
it, but there is in its eating that tooth action which
thoroughly prepares the food for the next stage in the
process of digestion. If there are' instances of diseases
of the teeth of wild animals they are exceedingly rare.
This must be so, or otherwise there is no truth in
nature. The ox, the horse, and sheep, and other
domestic animals, choose those foods, when not pre-
vented, that require thorough mastication. So in
ancient times, man subsisted upon naturally organ-
ized foods. The Egyptian of the dynasties of the
Pharaohs ate bread of the whole kernel of the wheat.
So also did the Israelites in the time of Moses and the
patriarchs, and this custom of preserving all the
natural elements of the grains as food still obtains
in all Eastern countries. A score or more of writers
on Egypt and the Egyptians have told us that the
ancient people of the Nile Valley had simply ideal
teeth.
The people of the East and of the Orient live to-day,
in the main, upon grain-food that necessitates masti-
cation. Two vital purposes are thus accomplished.
The necessary tooth action develops the jaws and the


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 31
teeth alike, and second, there is complete nutrition of
the teeth through eating food that contains all their
natural elements, including the necessary lime, that
goes to make some seventy-five per cent, of the dentine
and ninety-six per cent, of the enamel of the teeth.
These elements have been eliminated from the bread
of the American that it may be white, and there is, as
a consequence, a silent, insidious, and never-ceasing
deservation of the teeth because there is not sufficient
nutrition. Even a partial destruction of the teeth
means a partial mastication of the food, and this
means in turn an impairment of the physical forces.
Intellectuality must have for its basis physical well-
being in order that a full measure of benefit may be
enjoyed. If we are a nation of people with impaired
teeth and therefore impaired physical vitality, our
intelligence will avail us but little in the hour of need.
In fact, the intelligence of people who do not know
enough to have good teeth may be called in question.
The numerous American dental organizations afford
sufficient evidence that the teeth of the American peo-
ple require a vast amount of professional attention.
How is it with the teeth of other nationalities? At
my request Dr. C. Frank Bliven of Worcester, person-
ally investigated over a hundred cases among the
heterogeneous population of that city. The investiga-
tions were chiefly among the poorer classes, and where
but little personal attention of the teeth could be ex-
pected. Each examination reported bears the attest-
ation of Dr. Bliven. These examinations include Finns,
Swedes, Russians, Armenians and Syrians. They all
state, without qualification, that white-flour bread


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 33
this position and was amazed not only to find absence
of reference thereto, but great conflict of opinion as
respects the causes of the infirmities of man so far as
food contributed to these results. In this conflict of
opinion from scientific sources what comfort could
parents find—parents naturally solicitous for the wel-
fare of their children? The histories of the different
civilizations of the world show at what period in each
civilization the people enjoyed the greatest immunity
from conditions that beset our nineteenth century
civilization—a civilization that boasts of its educa-
tional advantages and progress. Investigation on
this line has been most satisfactory, for it has resulted
in establishing that the periods when the people were
strong and vigorous, when they had strong bones,
good teeth, firm muscle, and when the truly great
men and truly great women lived were in the early
part of the history of each civilization. Always in
these early periods the people lived on a simple diet of
naturally organized food. Then they enjoyed the full
benefits of the perfect chemistry of nature. When man
became more civilized, so called, and took upon him-
self the task of improving upon the chemistry of nature
by disorganizing nature's perfect handiwork and per-
fect body building material, the trouble began and
civilizations perished in consequence.
The proposition that man can take a part of each
whole of two or more food products, naturally and
perfectly organized in nature's laboratory, and com-
bine these parts into a food in his laboratory so as to
improve upon nature, is the most stupendous error in
any age and any civilization.


34
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
The deorganization ol the structural elements in
naturally organized food products is the greatest
single factor in bringing about the ills of the present
day, and is especially evidenced by the defective teeth
of the people of our civilization.
So intimately associated in natural food products
are the properties that build both tooth and nerve
tissue that when one is eliminated the other is sure to
follow, and so it is we find people with poor teeth
usually nervous.
The intelligent dentist who by his advice directs
the mother how to furnish the proper food to build
proper teeth, at the same time directs her how to
build good nerve tissue, and thus becomes a prime fac-
tor in the development of healthy human structures.
Upon no form of food, perfect in tooth-building
material—in fact in all respects—have there been such
senseless ravishes by man as those perpetrated on the
marvelously perfect wheat berry. The output of food
made from the separated parts of naturally allied
properties of the perfect whole, of chemically con-
verted and predigested food, either in whole or in
part, and adulterated food, is the great crime, now on
the increase, perpetrated against unsuspecting and
confiding children and weak and suffering humanity
generally. If the disorganization, adulteration and
manipulation of foods continue with anything like
the ratio of increase for the past few years, dentists,
however expert they may be, will have difficulty in
finding a basis for their mechanical operations. We
can only hope for a remedy in education for the evils
resulting from improper food. But when all a man is
is what he is educated to be, or his education makes


NUTRITION AS A TOOTH-BUILDER 35
possible, what hope is there when our leading edu-
cators can not give a rational answer to the question
—Why do you eat what you do? Why, out of the
abundant supply of innumerable food products, do
you select what you do? And so we might ply our
educators with questions relative to their physical
infirmities with no hope of information of practical
value. They know, or seem to know, everything but
that one thing fundamental, how to build the body
into harmonious conditions. What an oversight in
our educational system which costs the people count-
less millions of dollars!
A suggestion is made pointing a way out of the
wilderness of self-inflicted pain and suffering. Our
teachers must be educated in this fundamental work,
for the A B C of proper food must be taught along
with the A B C of our language. I can conceive of no
place to begin this work unless indeed it be through
that medium which always has, and always will,
respond in cases of great emergency. We must, and I
am sure we will not in vain, appeal to the mothers—
mothers' clubs and women's clubs—who are the hope
of our country, and through this medium a public
sentiment can be created that will demand that true
domestic science be taught in every school in the land.
To do less is to expend the substance of the people in
educational institutions with the result of handicap-
ping our children in the race of life, and thus defeating
the objects sought.
And may not appeal be made to the dentists of the
country who are already organized for combined as
well as individual effort? Through the pain and suf-
fering of ignorance they are brought in contact with









FOURTEENTH CENTURY VENETIAN CHILDREN'S FACES



I•IPTKKNTH i BSTV8 J• VKAET'.N CIIILPHWS'S






FIFTEENTH CEMTUBY VENETIAN CHILDREN'S FACE*





Oral Sepsis as a Cause of "Septic
Gastritis," "Toxic Neuritis," and
Other Septic Conditions.
WITH ILLUSTRATIVE CASES.
By WILLIAM HUNTER, M. D., P. R. C. P.
Physician to the Electrical Department, Joint Lecturer on Prac-
tical Medicine and Pathological Curator, Charing Cross
Hospital; Senior Assistant Physician, the London Fever
Hospital.
I.—INTRODUCTORY.
For the last twelve years, in connection with va-
rious studies, my attention has been called in increas-
ing degree to an important and prevalent source of
disease, one whose importance, I think, is not suffi-
ciently recognized. The subject is oral sepsis—sepsis
arising in connection with diseased conditions of the
mouth. My attention was first drawn to it in con-
nection with the pathology of anaemia; and since
then it has been extended in connection with the
pathology of a great number of infective diseases
which have one factor in common—namely, septic
organisms underlying them.
The case which brought to a head my interest in
this subject was one I met with some two years ago.
It definitely proved the connection between oral sep-
sis and one of its commonest effects—one so marked
and so common that 1 have designated it by a special
name, Septic Gastritis. Since then I have seen a
large number of cases, illustrating both the frequency
and the importance of the subject; illustrating, more-
over, what I regard as even more striking—the
extraordinary degree to which oral sepsis is over-


40
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
looked, alike by all parties concerned—the physician,
the surgeon, the patient.
I have already had occasion to draw attention to
the subject; but additional experience only serves more
and more to emphasize its importance from medical,
surgical, and preventive medicine points of view. I
desire here to point out once more how common a
cause of disease it is, how grave are its effects, how
constantly it is overlooked, and what remarkably
beneficial results can be got from its removal. In so
doing, it is not my purpose to select rare isolated
cases from the literature in order to produce a pic-
ture which may arrest attention from its dark col-
ors. I shall illustrate the subject by cases from my
own experience, thereby bringing out how common
the condition is. In so doing, I shall draw attention
for the first time to a new and hitherto unrecognized
effect of prolonged oral sepsis—namely, Toxic Neuritis.
H.—LOCAL EFFECTS OF ORAL SEPSIS.
The oral sepsis, to which I refer, is by no means
confined to or associated with any one diseased con-
dition of the mouth. Its local manifestations are
very various. They include a whole series of local
inflammatory and suppurative conditions met with
in the mouth and adjacent parts.
In the Mouth.—Dental necrosis in all cases; gingi-
vitis and stomatitis of every degree of intensity, in-
flammatory, pustular, ulcerative, sloughing, and gan-
grenous; periostitis; suppuration around decayed
teeth; pyorrhoea alveolaris; deposition of tartar.
In the Jaws.—Periostitis, alveolar abscesses, oste-
itis, osteomyelitis, necrosis, maxillary abscess.


ORAL SEPSIS
45
tic" accurately describing the cause and the nature of
the resulting catarrh.
The result of my recent observations has been to
demonstrate a relationship between oral sepsis and
gastric catarrh of a closer character than that hith-
erto recognized.
The Relation between Dental Disease and Indiges-
tion.—That digestion is to a large degree conditioned
by the state of the teeth—their presence or absence,
their soundness, their freedom from pain—is generally
recognized. But if inquiry were made as to the na-
ture of the connection,opinions would be found to differ.
(1) In the minds of most, the relation is what one
may term a "mechanical" one. Carious teeth mean
imperfect mastication, consequently increased and
unnecessary work for the stomach, this leading in
course of time to the various ills connected with im-
paired digestion. Such a mechanical relation is by no
means the only, or the most important, relation of
dental disease to general health.
(2) In the minds of others the connection between
bad teeth and bad health is supposed to be of another
kind—viz., that bad teeth denote bad nutrition and
bad health. They are the result of ill-health rather
than the cause of it.
(3) A third possible relationship—far more im-
portant than either of the two above mentioned, and
of one which no mention is to be found in recent
treatises on stomach diseases—is, as I have had occa-
sion recently to show, dental disease as a cause of in-
digestion in consequence of being a continual source
of septic poisoning and septic gastric infection. That
relationship I have thus described:


46
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
(1) There is a limit to the capacity, even of the
stomach, to resist indefinitely for periods of years the
continuous presence of pyogenic (pus-forming) and
other organisms derived from cario-necrotic condi-
tions of the teeth.
(2) Its powers of destroying such organisms, al-
though great, are never complete even in health; and
are due solely to the presence of free HC1.
(3) These powers become progressively weakened
when through any cause an increased and continuous
supply of pus organisms is associated with a dimin-
ished, and continually lessening acidity of the gastric
juice.
(4) These two conditions are precisely those pro-
duced by chronic cario-necrosis of the teeth.
(5) In time the catarrh of the stomach, so com-
mon a sequel of imperfect dentition—possibly of sim-
ply irritant nature to begin with, the result of fer-
mentation—becomes septic in its character—becomes
really a septic gastric catarrh.
(6) Eventually it may even lead to the deeper-
seated changes which always result from chronic
catarrh—viz., atrophy of secreting structures, with
increase of fibrous tissue (chronic gastritis with atro-
phy of the glands).
The continuous swallowing of mouthfuls of pus
organisms is not tolerated indefinitely by the stom-
ach mucosa. The number of organisms that enter
the stomach from the mouth is very large—the most
of them to be destroyed, fortunately, by the gas-
tric juice. But this is by no means true of all. A
very considerable proportion (as many as eight out
of twenty-five, according to Professor Miller) are to


ORAL. SEPSIS
47
be found in the stomach contents. The observations
of Macfadyen and others show that only a certain
proportion are destroyed by the gastric juice. It is
only when the acidity of the gastric juice is consid-
erable—e. g., an hour or two after food—that it exer-
cises any direct bactericidal action.
In long-standing dental disease, the conditions are
thus, I consider, precisely those most likely to pro-
duce infection of the stomach—viz., on the one hand,
diminished resistance, i. e., diminished acidity as a
result of the chronic indigestion and catarrh; on the
other hand, increase of dose, i. e., increased supply of
pus organisms from the necrotic teeth, reaching the
stomach not only during digestion, but in the inter-
vals between meals when the free HC1 is at a mini-
mum or nil. That under such circumstances disturb-
ances may arise, from abnormal fermentative proc-
esses in the stomach, is a fact to which both clinical
and pathological experience testifies—one, too, that is
generally recognized. What, however, I find is, that
the effect is not limited to a mere fermentation of
food products, but that actual infection of themucosa
with pathogenic organisms may itself occur. The
mucosa of the stomach continuously exposed to in-
fection—e.g., of pus organisms from the teeth—be-
comes eventually infected. A septic catarrh is set up,
never got rid of, but continuously sustained by in-
flux of septic organisms into the stomach; if contin-
ued long enough, this chronic catarrh leads to the
usual effects of a glandular catarrh—viz., glandular
atrophy, with increase of interstitial tissue around.
These considerations as to the possible effects, both
general and local, of long-continued dental and oral


48
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
sepsis are of no mere pathological interest. On the
contrary, they are of supreme practical importance,
exemplified as they are (to a degree which is, in my
judgment and almost daily experience, altogether in-
sufficiently recognized) by the cases one meets with of
gastric catarrh in association with dental and oral
sepsis.
The ashy-gray look and general languor which
such patients, in one's experience, characteristically
present, are really manifestations of long-continued
septic absorption; the local symptoms of clamminess
of the mouth, distaste for food, coated tongue, and
bad taste in the mouth, which one simply looks upon
as manifestations of gastric catarrh, are really the
result of the oral sepsis; while the nausea, indiges-
tion, and gastric discomfort are the result of "septic"
gastric catarrh produced by direct infection of the
stomach with the pus organisms.
These considerations, as I have thus put them,
may appear so obvious that they require no further
emphasis. But the cases I have to describe illustrate
two points—first, the frequency of the conditions;
and secondly, the extraordinary way in which the
most remarkable conditions of oral sepsis are over-
looked, while the patient is being all the time sedu-
lously treated for the local effects.
Case 1 appears to me to present points of unique
interest in demonstrating the actual relations be-
tween dental infection and gastritis—viz., the history
of nausea and vomiting: gastric pain extending over
a period of months—the pain so severe as to necessi-
tate the use of opium and to suggest cancer; the
scrupulous cleanliness of tooth-plates and the health-


ORAL SEPSIS
49
iness of the gums; the absence of all teeth except
three carious ones, these latter discharging pus from
their roots; the removal of these three; the immedi-
ate improvement, temporary in character; the recur-
rence of sickness and vomiting; the vomit three weeks
after removal of the teeth still loaded with pus or-
ganisms; the administration of salicylic acid as a
local antiseptic; the entire cessation of all gastric
symptoms in three days; in three months a gain of a
stone in weight; and lastly, the permanency of the
cure. Fifteen months later the patient wrote that
she had never had any return of the sickness.
Case 1 (1898).—Subacute gastritis in a lady aged sixty-
two years. The patient suffered from severe intermittent
sickness and gastric pain necessitating the use of morphia,
of eight months' duration, with loss of weight and increas-
ing weakness. Cancer was suspected, but on examination
no sign of malignant disease was found in the stomach, the
abdomen, the rectum, or the uterus. Constant complaint
was made of a bitter taste in the mouth, nausea, with
loathing and distaste for all food. The tongue was coated
with a dirty moist fur. The patient had false teeth both in
the upper andthe lower jaws. The plates were scrupulously
clean, and the gums beneath the plates were perfectly
healthy. There were only three teeth in the jaws, and
these were decayed, suppurating around the roots with
pus welling up on pressure. There was no other sign of
disease. A provisional diagnosis was made of gastritis
caused by continual swallowing of pus. The stumps were
ordered to be removed. A week later the tongue was clean,
the sense of taste returned for the first time for eight
months, and there had been only one attack of gastric pain.
In another week there was a return of the sickness, with
vomiting and pain and slight fever. The vomit obtained
was free from food; it was watery, with rusty flakes con-
sisting of mucus, fibrin, catarrhal cells, leucocytes, and
blood, the whole being loaded with streptococcus and


50
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
staphylococcus (pus) organisms, and a few bacilli. A
diagnosis was made of infective ("septic") catarrh. As a
local antiseptic three grains of salicylic acid were given
thrice daily, peptonized milk as food, and counter-irritation
was applied. There was complete cessation of all pain
and a steady recovery from that time onward. When the
patient was first seen her weight was 9 st. 10 lb., and a
month later (after her illness) it was 9 st. 6 lb. Two
months later it had increased to 10 st. 6 lb. She reported
herself well and she has since remained well (after fifteen
months).
Up to the time I met with this case my suspicions
regarding the teeth were based on general grounds.
Knowing how infective the organisms of dental caries
were, such unhealthy teeth seemed to me tohe possible
sources of infection. I had no proof that infection
from decayed suppurating teeth might be the direct
cause of gastritis. This case was, therefore, a partic-
larly crucial one in this relation. Had teeth as a whole
been very bad—e.g:, a number of rotten stumps amidst
a few fairly good teeth, the condition one so often
meets with both in private and still more in hospital
practice—and had they been all removed and replaced
with good artificial teeth, it would have been difficult
to decide whether the resulting improvement was due
to removal of the teeth as sources of infection, or to
improved appetite and better mastication. In this
case, no change was made as regards new teeth, nor,
indeed, was any necessary. The only change made
was the removal of the three suppurating teeth, which
had, the patient said, never caused her any trouble—
indeed, she regarded them as " old friends," whose loss
she greatly deplored. She said that "she had had
them like that for twelve months or more"—her gas-


ORAL SEPSIS
51
trie trouble, be it noted, extending over about the
same period of time.
I was able to demonstrate in this case, not only—
(1) The septic nature of the gastric catarrh—the
catarrhal exudation vomited being loaded with pus
organisms; but also—
(2) Its persistence, since the condition continued
three weeks after removal of all source of oral sepsis.
How much more then is this condition likely to
exist when the oral sepsis is extreme, as it often is,
and the patient has to swallow pus organisms con-
tinuously for many years!
Case 2.—Shortly afterwards I saw an old gentleman, a
man of strong build and fine physique. He came complain-
ing of sickness and nausea, with disturbance of digestion,
and a foul taste in his mouth. He could not eat butcher's
meat as it tasted so bad. These symptoms had lasted
twelve months when I saw him. On examination in the
usual way, I found that his tongue was red and raw, look-
ing like a piece of raw meat; both upper and lower gums
were angry, and red and inflamed. He had two plates, one
in the upper jaw, from which all the teeth had been ex-
tracted, and one in the lower jaw. The latter was removed
with difficulty; it had not been taken out for a month or
more and had become fixed. There was an extraordinary
amount of decomposing septic material around the plates
and beneath them. The lower jaw contained three black
teeth, one of them loose, in addition to four old rotten
stumps, one of which was loose. The diagnosis I made
was subacute septic gastritis. The treatment was to boil
his plates, to go at once to his dentist to show him the
condition of his mouth before any treatment was com-
menced, so that the dentist might recognize that the trouble
had been caused by these rotten teeth. The patient was
then put upon milk diet. A week later he returned and
said his dentist had seen nothing to remove. Yet even now
one rotten stump was so loose that it could have been re-


52
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
moved with one finger. He had been twice sick since I
saw him, and had brought up a lot of black offensive mat-
ter. Since bringing that up he was better, and took his
food better than for many months. "Yesterday he took a
cutlet, which he enjoyed." The mouth was now clean, but
was still a little red. The tongue had lost all its original
beefy look. The gums were better, but sore, and there was
still some stomatitis. I ordered him to scrub his mouth
night and morning with disinfecting powder, and to paint
the gums with an astringent wash, and to try another
dentist.
Case 3.—Shortly after this, I had the case of a lady who
was brought to me by her doctor for the following symp-
toms: For fifteen to twenty years she had suffered period-
ically from the most intense salivation at intervals of five
or six weeks. It made her so ill that she was obliged to
take to her bed. The attack usually passed off after what
the doctor called a "diarrhoea attack." On examination,
I found that she had the most extreme stomatitis all over
her mouth; an acute, inflammatory condition, with pus-
tules radiating up from carious roots and fangs. She had
two plates, one above and one below, both of which she
said were ill-fitting, so as to cause her discomfort. She had
had those plates for fifteen to twenty years, unchanged,
and during that time she had only cleaned them with her
toothbrush. The condition of sepsis in connection with that
may be easily imagined.
Case 4.—General condition: chronic indigestion, gastric
pain, gastric catarrh. Oral condition: marked dental
cario-necrosis, gingivitis, stomatitis, and pyorrhoea alveol-
aris. A gentleman sent to me (April, 1900) suffering from
chronic indigestion, extending over many years. Pain, 2, 3
hours after food, with peculiar "sinking" feeling, only
relieved by eating. Mouth: Teeth very bad, black and
decayed, some of them loose; gums very red and inflamed;
from one tooth pus welling out on pressure upon socket.
Treatment: Oral antisepsis. Result: Five months later
reported extraordinary benefit.


ORAL, SEPSIS
53
The following cases illustrate how slight the local
condition may be, and yet how marked—on account
of its septic character—its effects in individual cases
may be:
Case 5.—General symptoms: salivation, gastric dis-
comfort, gastric catarrh. Oral condition: localized gin-
givitis beneath a gold bridge, which stretched between
two gold caps. Immediate disappearance of symptoms on
removing bridge and gold caps. A small pocket was found
beneath the bridge, filled with pus organisms.
Case 6.—General symptoms: salivation and gastric dis-
comfort, gastric catarrh. Oral condition: local gingivitis,
in connection with a gold cap covering a crown. On re-
moval of cap, its lower edge was found to cover a small
carious cavity in the neck of the tooth. This case was in
the same individual as the previous one. The symptoms
disappeared on removal of the cap.
It is unnecessary to quote any more cases. Cases
similar to the above could be multiplied indefinitely.
In every out-patient department of every hospital one
can see them daily by the dozen. The condition is so
marked that one has only to look into the mouth of
such patients to see what is the trouble.
IY.—TOXIC EFFECTS.
The effects I include under this title are those due
to septic absorption, apart from any actual general
infection.
They are extremely common, and, like all the other
effects of oral sepsis, no less commonly overlooked.
The commonest manifestations of them are those I
have already adverted to in connection with septic
gastritis—namely, the dirty ashy-gray look and gen-
eral languor, irritability, feelings of intense depression
which I constantly find in these cases associated with


ORAL SEPSIS
55
There is a stage in septic conditions, as in other
forms of infection, when the absence of local reaction
is not only compatible with the profound septic ef-
fects, but, even more than any other circumstance,
denotes the severity of the effects. I have known a
patient to be utterly prostrate with subnormal tem-
perature, extreme cardiac depression, and feeble pulse
as the result of blood-poisoning; his hands and arms
covered with a number of sluggish, dirty boils, none
of them giving the slightest pain, or accompanied by
any local inflammation; and I have seen in the same
patient, a month later, when he was on the road to
recovery, the most violent local inflammation, ab-
scess formation, lymphangitis, and fever arising in
connection with one of the sores on his hand.
In that case the actual toxic effects were greatest
when the local effects were least. The absence of local
effects was due to the very intensity of the poisoning.
The tissues were able to offer no resistance at all. If
the local effects had been as marked at the outset as
they were at the termination, the general toxic effects
would not have been so marked. They would have
included the ordinary effects of blood-poisoning—
namely, lymphangitis and high fever.
These statements as to the character and severity
of the general effects may be illustrated by the follow-
ing cases:
Case 7.—A lady who for several years had suffered from
remarkable periodic attacks of fever and rashes, with
marked nervous disturbance. These attacks had come on
at regular intervals for two or three years, and I was called
to see her when she had one of her rashes. I found she had
a typical blotchy septic rash over the legs, arms, and body.
Her history was that about a month or two previously


56
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
her dental surgeon, having had his attention drawn to it
by the first case I have described, had insisted on removing
a tooth-plate from her upper jaw, which had partly grown
into the tipper jaw, and had been there for several years.
Her condition was one of profound sepsis. Her periodic
rashes, gastritis, and nervous disturbances were the acute
manifestations of that. They had always been regarded as
manifestations of gout.
Case 8.—A youth who had inflammation of his gums set
up by withdrawal of a tooth. Extensive stomatitis set in,
and spread from point to point until the teeth became loose
and necrotic. Half the upper jaw became completely
necrosed, and there was a foul gangrenous condition of the
whole of the superior maxilla, an acute and profound sep-
ticaemia, hemorrhagic nephritis, and death. This case still
further illustrates the extraordinarily virulent character of
the infection associated with diseased teeth.
Case 9.—I have now to point out that in connection
with this dental caries you may have these pyogenic effects
latent. Such a case was that of a man who presented no
dental history during life, so far as could be ascertained.
He died of pernicious anaemia. Post-mortem, the condition
found was the following: The teeth were necrosed in their
sockets, which presented a sodden appearance, and in this
particular case at the bottom of one of them was an alve-
olar abscess the size of a small hazel-nut, leading by a sinus
to the necrosed tooth. In connection with another tooth
there was a smaller pus center. Further, there was sup-
puration in the ethmoidal sinuses on the left side.
Of the existence of this profoundly septic condition
there was not, be it noted, the slightest symptom, or
the slightest suspicion, during life. The case is es-
pecially interesting, fully confirming as it does my re-
cent observations and conclusions regarding the in-
fective (partly septic) nature of pernicious anasmia,
and the importance of oral sepsis in relation to it.


58
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
He came to the Electrical Department under my care for
treatment of his arms. He was a spare man, ill-nourished,
with a peculiarly dirty-gray sallow look. He suffered from
a marked weakness and atrophy of all the muscles of both
arms, as far up as the deltoids, and especially of the
deltoids.
Trapezius, scapular, and rhomboid muscles not affected.
They all reacted, although with diminished force, to
faradism, with the exception of the posterior part of the
deltoids. This last gave no reaction with faradism, and
showed reaction of degeneration—viz., K. C. C. nil, slug-
gish reaction with A. C. C.
His mouth presented the most intense condition of oral
sepsis, dirty black teeth, many of them loose, and extreme
gingivitis.
This condition he had had for twelve years.
Three years ago was employed in mixing of paints.
While thus employed he says he suffered from "muscular
rheumatism." No recent history of lead-poisoning. He had
rheumatic fever sixteen or seventeen years ago. His present
illness began early last June, with violent vomiting and
diarrhoea.
Sept. 20th.—Treatment.—Gums thoroughly swabbed
with 1-20 carbolic acid, and a mouth-wash given of same
(3 1 in half a tumbler of water; also syr.ferr.hypophosphit.
3 1; liq. arsenicalis, nj 2 ter die.
Sept. 25th.—Gingivitis and stomatitis much less. Some
teeth still loose, greater power in arms. Can now flex arms
freely at elbows.
Oct. 2d.—Improvement continues.
Oct. 4th.—Loose teeth removed.
Oct. 9th.—Mouth now clean, marked improvement in
arms, all movements now free except those of shoulders;
although muscles still wasted.
Case 11.—Mary thirty-three. Confined three months
ago. Complaint since then weakness, numbness, and wast-
ing of muscles of left thumb and fourth and fifth fingers.
Pains up the arm to the left shoulder; great nervousness.


ORAL SEPSIS
59
Illness began with numbness in fourth and fifth fingers,
followed by " pins and needles" sensation.
Sept. 23d.—Some tenderness of left median nerve. Marked
wasting of muscles of thenar and hypothenar eminences.
She presents a dirty, sallow-looking color of face.
Mouth: Tooth-plate upper jaw, covering a number of
teeth broken off; most intense gingivitis around roots.
She has suffered greatly from bad teeth, and has suffered
from indigestion for years.
Treatment: Gums swabbed with 1-20 carbolic, and an
antiseptic mouth-wash ordered to be used morning and
night. Salicylate of soda, 15 grs. dose thrice daily.
Tooth-plate not to be worn.
Oct. 2d.—Mouth condition much improved, again thor-
oughly swabbed. Power in left hand much better, no
"pins and needles."
Oct. 9th.—Declares herself "wonderfully better." She
has lost her former sallow look, and is now fresh com-
plexioned. Mouth very clean, although roots still remain.
She can now grasp freely with left hand.
Case 12.—Aged thirty-four. Oct. 3,1899.—Sought advice
for wasting of muscles of left upper arm, and forearm and
hand, commencing with the triceps and biceps. Muscles
of shoulder (deltoid and trapezius) little if at all affected.
The muscles affected correspond to distribution of musculo-
spiral and median nerves. Both these nerves sensitive to
pressure, and especially sensitive to electrical stimulation.
Electrical reactions: Stimulation with faradic and gal-
vanic currents causes much pain, especially over nerves,
and over internal and external cutaneous nerves. Faradic
reactions much diminished; galvanic reactions increased,
but K. C. C. still greater than A. C. C.
History: Illness came on a week before confinement,
with "pins and needles" sensation; a week after, great
pain with weakness in left arm and shoulders.
Diagnosis: Peripheral neuritis, especially of musculo-
spiral nerve.
Treatment: Faradic bath (feeble current), with a view
to prevent further wasting of muscles.


64
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
peptic," and the like—becomes more manifest when
we come to deal with graver conditions of so-called
"ulcerative stomatitis."
Because here the same line of thought is continued.
Every factor is taken into consideration, except the
possible local septic origin of the condition.
In children it is referred to gravely defective nutri-
tion or improper feeding; in adults, to insanitary sur-
roundings; "some local irritation," such as "a de-
cayed or sharp tooth," mercurial poisoning, over-
crowding. By only one of the most recent writers *
is the condition of the teeth recognized as a very im-
portant element in the production of this form of
stomatitis, inasmuch as it never appears before the
teeth; the same writer also stating that "too much
stress cannot be laid on the importance of observing
the teeth from a medical standpoint, whether it be
with regard to caries in adults as the probable cause
of dyspepsia, or delayed dentition in children as an
indication of improper feeding and rickets."
A reference such as this—limited though it be to
carious teeth "as the probable cause of dyspepsia,"
or to delayed dentition in children "as an indication
of improper feeding and rickets," goes far beyond the
usual terms of reference to this subject.
Writers of general treatises of medicine make no
reference to the subject at all, except in one relation.
Examination of the teeth is always inculcated as im-
portant; since notching of the teeth may denote
unsuspected syphilis; a blue line on the gums may
suggest lead-poisoning, and looseness of the gums
may denote scorbutic conditions.
• Dr. Wills: "Allbott's System of Medicine," vol. ill., p. 335.


ORAL SEPSIS
65
Nowhere is there any reference to the extraordina-
rily septic conditions seen in the mouth in everyday
practice as the result of septic inflammation arising
from necrotic teeth.
(3 ) Tonsillitis.—If the real nature of such obviously
septic conditions as those I have just referred to, and
their possible relation to the sepsis of the teeth, are
systematically overlooked, it is not surprising that,
the further we recede from the teeth, this should be
even more the case.
Thus one of the commonest pyogenic infections in
the mouth is tonsillitis.
In its list of possible causes every conceivable factor
is mentioned; overwork, anxiety, all causes (whether
local or general) which lower the resisting power of
the tissues and render the individual more liable to
infection — e. g., chronic hypertrophy of glands,
arthritic rheumatism, exposure to cold, sudden
changes in temperature, septic poisoning from bad
drainage, injury by a spicule of bone, or by mechan-
ical injury; sometimes even the presence of calcareous
cheesy masses in the crypts.
Every possible factor is thus noted, including "in
not a few cases septic poisoning from bad drainage."
But no mention is made of a source of septic poison-
ing far more common than bad drainage—viz., dental
cario-necrosis with its septic conditions adjacent to
the tonsils themselves.
Such conditions are at least extremely proximate
sources of infection, one always ready to avail itself
of any weakening of the powers of resistance by the
other factors mentioned.


ORAL, SEPSIS
67
drugs like antimony, mercury, belladonna, the virus
of various infective diseases (measles, scarlet fever,
and the like); traumatic, from burns, scalds, external
violence and the like. In the still more common
chronic form, general anaemia, dyspepsia, constipa-
tion, irritation of tobacco smoke, abuse of alcoholic
drinks, exanthemata, and, lastly, improper methods
of voice production.
Of these causes, dyspepsia and constipation are
described by one of the latest writers* as the most
potent; and the class of case thus arising he has been
led to regard as toxic in origin, due to a failure on
the part of the liver to destroy toxines resulting from
imperfect digestion, or from decomposition in the
intestine; these toxines, like belladonna, exerting a
specific action on the pharyngeal mucous membrane.
The relation betwixt the pharyngitis and these
various disturbances are, in my judgment of another
kind. All the disturbances—gastric, intestinal, and
hepatic—which are here had in view, as having some
causal relation to the pharyngitis, are precisely the
class of disturbances I have described as the results of
septic gastritis.
The pharyngitis is not caused by them; but both
alike are part results of the primary septic condition
within the mouth.
The pharyngitis is a part effect of the oral sepsis,
with the stomatitis and the septic gastritis.
(5) Septic Gastritis.—If, as has been seen, the most
pronounced conditions of oral sepsis obvious to the
eye are constantly overlooked, it is not surprising
• Dr. W. Williams; "AUtratt's System of Medicine," toI. It., p.727.


68
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
that its relation to more distant effects are over-
looked.
And this is especially true of its gastric effects.
Here the oral sepsis is constantly overlooked, while
the patient is sedulously treated for its effects.
The physician, called on in his special sphere of duty
to deal with gastric disorder of every kind and every
degree of severity, is content to ascribe them to errors
in food or drink, habits of eating, and other general
conditions, and treats them for years with stomachic
medicines—bismuth, rhubarb, soda gentian, and the
like—while he overlooks the most pronounced condi-
tions of sepsis in the mouth in connection with cari-
ous teeth, decayed roots, and every kind and degree
of stomatitis; or, if he notes the condition of teeth
he is content to ascribe the gastric disorder to imper-
fect mastication.
The surgeon who is punctilious to a degree—and
most rightly so—in seeing that, so far as local scrub-
bing and disinfection can effect the result, no single
septic organism shall remain in the portion of the skin
he operates on to contaminate his wound; who re-
gards—and rightly so—even one drop of pus in connec-
tion with his wound as an evidence of sepsis and of
partial failure on his part to attain the perfection of
results; whose whole life, it may be said, is passed in
excluding and combating septic infection, even in its
slightest degree; he also, without hesitation, will
perform the most complicated and severe operations,
e. g., on the stomach or intestinal canal, without the
slightest regard to the presence of septic teeth, septic
roots, septic conditionsof the gum sand buccal mucous
membrane.


ORAL SEPSIS 69
The dentist who does so much for his patient in
these days of conservative dentistry and high profes-
sional dental skill; who sees so much of the unhealthy
oral conditions connected with dental caries and
necrosis; who, on the strength of his experience, can
reproach the physician for his neglect of such con-
ditions; he also will skilfully gold-cap a tooth, or put
on a gold bridge, or supply a patient with tooth-plates
—the gold cap to cover a diseased and blackened tooth,
the bridge to form a compact and inaccessible pocket
for thegrowth of pus organisms between itself and the
gum; the tooth-plate to be worn for years, without
any cleaning other than scrubbing, and, as often as
not, covering foul septic necrotic stumps; or so ill-
fitting that rather than be troubled with their re-
moval the patient allows them to grow into the gums.
The patient—the sufferer—going to the physician
for his gastritis, may be told in a general way to go
to his dentist, to have his teeth put right and get new
teeth to masticate his food; but as often as not de-
clines to do so, because, in his words, "his teeth don't
give him any trouble"—/. e., pain. Finally, when he
does go, the dentist naturally finds so much to be done
that he is regarded by the patient as wishing to do too
much. Even then he may find himself supplied with
elaborate and ill-fitting tooth-plates, bridges, gold caps,
stoppings—which may relieve completely, or, on the
other hand, may be followed by a recurrence of his
former troubles.
Lastly, when occasionally—fortunately very rarely
—there is developed a condition of "phlegmonous
gastritis," "suppurative gastritis," "mycotic gas-
tritis," perigastric abscess, the pathologist is there to


70
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
find pus infiltrating the coats of the stomach; to dis-
cover staphylococci and streptococci in corresponding
abundance; to discuss the rarity of the condition and
the influence of dietetic and other habits on its pro-
duction; and to what extent the infection has arisen
de novo in the stomach, or been introduced from the
blood; while ignoring altogether even the possibility
that the infection may have reached the stomach from
the mouth.
The patient will have suffered much, heard much,
and possibly medically and dentally been treated much;
but as regards his teeth, the only fact he will have
learnt is, that if he has not got proper teeth, he must
expect to have indigestion, as naturally he cannot
masticate his food properly.
Whereas the actual facts with regard to his con-
dition of oral sepsis are, that—
(1) The condition of mouth associated with the
presence of decayed teeth and rotten fangs is not
simply a want of teeth, but is a condition of profound
sepsis; and that, too, irrespective altogether of any
pain or discomfort they may have from time to time
caused, or even of the entire absence of such pain.
(2) The sepsis, moreover, is one differing from or-
dinary surgical sepsis, inasmuch as all the pus organ-
isms are continuously being swallowed, probably over
a period of many years.
(3) Further, it is a sepsis connected with diseased
bone (i. e., tooth), than which there is no more virulent
form.
(4) While the gastric juice has fortunately a great
capacity for killing organisms, this capacity is not


ORAL SEPSIS
71
complete, even in health, in the intervals between food
when the acidity of the juice is at a minimum.
(5) The continuous influx of pus organisms from
diseased teeth and gums must be a source of disturb-
ance to the mucosa, causing catarrh and diminished
gastric secretion.
(6) When we have diminished acidity of gastric
juice with increased influx of organisms, we have the
two conditions—diminished resisting power and in-
crease of dose—which all pathological knowledge
shows to be the two chief conditions underlying
infection.
(7) Consequently the gastric catarrh becomes really
a septic catarrh due to invasion of the mucosa with
septic organisms.
(8) Further, apart altogether from its gastric
effects, a continued production of pus in the mouth
must be a source of danger in other ways.
(9) The mere septic absorption from such teeth and
gums must be very considerable, lasting as it does
over many years.
(10) The sallow look and languid feelings of which
he complains, and which he and his doctor agree in
referring to his chronic indigestion, are really the ex-
pression of this septic absorption.
(11) If pus organisms are constantly being swal-
lowed, there is a risk of their infecting the tonsil over
which they must pass, and hence tonsillitic, pharyn-
geal, and Eustachian tube infection may from time to
time occur.
(12) Even apart from such local effects, there must
always be a certain risk connected with the absorp-
tion into the blood of such organisms from fungating


ORAL SEPSIS
73
A surgeon may be said to spend his life in combat-
ing septic infection; he surrounds himself at his work
with everything scrupulously clean; he goes to every
expense, and initiates arrangements of the most per-
fect order in his operating theaters; he will not even
touch the skin without scrubbing or doing his best to
get rid of all possible infection. But while doing all
this, he will, without the slightest regard, operate
when the mouth of his patient is in a septic condition,
full of necrosed teeth,and full of theeffectsof necrosis.
With regard to the treatment of these cases, what
I think wants fuller recognition on the part of all—
physicians, surgeons, dental surgeons, and patients—
is the septic nature of this condition of caries of the
mouth. The gastric trouble is not the result of any
dyspeptic trouble, or of ill-health, or of insufficient
mastication; but is the result of sepsis caused by the
carious teeth.
The matter, however, is important not only from
the point of view of the gastric trouble, but of the in-
fections in the body generally caused by pathogenic
organisms; locally—acute and chronic tonsillitis,
pharyngitis, otitis, follicular abscesses, glandular
swellings in the neck in connection with diseased teeth;
or more remotely—ulcerative endocarditis, meningitis,
obscure septicemia complicated by purpuric haemor-
rhages, pyasmia, osteomyelitis; in fact the whole series
of conditions caused by pus organisms.
The chief problem with regard to these conditions
is to find out where the pus organisms have gained
entrance. These organisms are not ubiquitous, but
are definite organisms causing pus formations.
We take most elaborate precautions to ensure our-


ORAL SEPSIS
75
plates are the cause of septic trouble unless they are
daily sterilized.
(4) There must be an entire avoidance of any den-
tal apparatus (liable to become septic) which cannot
be removed, and therefore which cannot be kept
aseptic.
Oral antisepsis thus carried out is a field of pre-
ventive medicine which I think can be worked in with
the most extraordinary success by the doctor, the
surgeon, the dental surgeon, and the patient.
There is another matter of great practical impor-
tance. Who is to do all this? The physician sees the
mouth condition, and sends the patient to the dentist.
The chances are that the patient will not go there.
The surgeon looks upon sepsis in the mouth as coming
within the domain of the physician, unless there be an
actual disease of the jaw. The dental surgeon will
treat the diseased tooth dentally, but he will not have
his patients come back in order to be treated locally.
So the patient is left with his septic gingevitis and
stomatitis.
I have been impressed by the neglect of the patient
in this way, and I have tried, as I have narrated, the
effect of sending patients in an extreme condition like
that I have described (Case 2) to the dentist. He
came back without having anything done.
Therefore the point is for each one to recognize that
it is not an affair of the other. If you see a follicular
tonsillitis or a quinsy, you do not immediately pass
the patient on to a throat specialist; you treat it
yourself. This condition of oral sepsis is one which
can be treated successfully by all, even by the patient


76
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
himself, provided its septic nature and its importance
as a disease factor be fully grasped.
The effects I have described are very common.
That they are not even more common is, as I have
said, solely due to the remarkably resistive powers
possessed by the mucosa of the mouth.
The great resisting power of the mouth is, however,
no reason why such conditions of oral sepsis should
be overlooked. How would one regard a physician or
surgeon who allowed a patient to go about for many
months, not to say years, with several small follicular
abscesses in his tonsils? One would think it very
neglectful; and if that patient came with a sallow
look and with pus on the tonsils, the diagnosis would
at once be, "Here is the cause of the condition"; and
rightly so. But it is the rule to neglect similar cases
in connection with the teeth.
The remarkable benefits to be obtained by the
measures indicated I could illustrate by many cases.
The following one may suffice; it illustrates very
well the extreme effects of oral sepsis; how resistant
the tissues of the mouth are; how, if its local septic
nature be recognized, the infection can be destroyed;
and, lastly, the extraordinary recuperative power
possessed by the mouth. Notwithstanding that at
the time the treatment was carried out the patient
was in a profoundly septicemic condition, with com-
mencing septic pneumonia, she eventually recovered.
Case 13.—A short time ago I was called in by a surgeon
who had been called in by the doctor to see a lady for pro-
found septic poisoning. She had a temperature of 105°
and 106°, and a most extensive condition of ulcerative and
almost gangrenous stomatitis. She had been in this condi-
tion for seven to ten days. She had had a tooth removed,


ORAL SEPSIS
77
and the root still remained. There was an abscess in the
maxilla, and she nad a sinus, and about it pus lay around
the gums. She had a sloughing condition of the mucous
membrane of her hard palate. The treatment employed
was local antisepsis, scrubbing the parts with one in
twenty carbolic acid lotion, and cutting away with scis-
sors the necrotic tissue on the palate, followed by removal
of the broken root, and one dose of antistrep-tococcic
serum. In forty-eight hours, as the result of the local treat-
ment, despite that woman's desperate condition, the whole
condition of gums and mouth looked fairly normal, though
at that time she was almost moribund with septic pneu-
monia. She eventually recovered; but it took a doctor, a
surgeon, a physician, and a dentist to rescue that patient
from an illness which could with certainty have been
avoided, if in the first instance, after the extraction of her
tooth, her mouth had been washed daily with an antiseptic
lotion.








PASTOR AND TEACHER
81
In this last article is disclosed the great principle
which actuated Franklin's life. His daily effort was
to better the condition of mankind, and his methods
were intensely practical, and became popular because
they were practical. The dominant idea of his words,
written or spoken, was that of plain common sense,
and to this day the literary critics say, "Read Frank-
lin forcommon sense." His series of " Poor Richard's
Almanac" quickly gained a national reputation which
has endured to this day. Its success was because of
its merit as an educator, both to the individual and
the community. Its pages were dotted with short,
pithy and effective sermons in the form of wise laws,
proverbs and bits of homely advice that appealed to
the hearts and reason of his readers. Each succeed-
ing annual almanac of " Poor Richard" was read and
conned by the colonists, and down through the
eighteenth, and well into the nineteenth, century, the
laws and proverbs of Franklin were repeated by
parents to their children and by teachers to their
pupils.
The wisdom of Franklin's doctrine as expounded
in the pages of his almanac, and which appealed to
his hearers with a force that survived for generations,
may be illustrated by such sayings as "Eat to live,
and not live to eat"; "I saw few men die of hunger,
of eating, 100,000"; "Many dishes, many diseases ";
"No man e'er was glorious who was not laborious";
"If you do what you should not, you must bear what
you would not"; "Timbs was so learned that he
could name a horse in nine languages, so ignorant
that he bought a cow to ride on"; "A full stomach
is the mother of all evil."


PASTOR AND TEACHER
83
writings of the ancient Greek philosophers. Franklin
acknowledged this himself, but the knack of serving
these up in a style to suit his times was all his own,
and he was, therefore, none the less a great teacher.
There must have been occasion for Franklin to
write what he did respecting the relation of food to
the health and well-being of man, or otherwise he
would not have so persistently taught this doctrine.
Philadelphia was, in the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury, a very rich city, as wealth was gauged in those
days, and its trade with foreign countries gave its
people opportunity to procure kinds of food that
were not accessible to most of the other colonists.
That there was lustful eating in Philadelphia in Frank-
lin's time is shown by the testimony of John Adams
of Massachusetts, and recorded in his diary after a
visit to that city. After dining at the home of a
young Quaker lawyer, he writes: "This plain Friend
with his plain but pretty wife with her thees and
thous, had provided us a costly entertainment: ducks,
hams, chickens, beef, pig, tarts, creams, custards,
jellies, trifles, floating-islands, beer, porter, punch,
wine, and a long etc."
This dinner Adams characterized as "a most sinful
feast."
Franklin saw the evil of such living, and he set
about a reform that he maintained to the end of his
life. He sounded the alarm in such ringing words as
these: "Who dainties love, shall beggars prove";
"Nine men in ten are suicides"; "Wouldst thou enjoy
a long life, a healthy body, and a vigorous mind, and
be acquainted also with the wonderful works of God?
Labor in the first place to bring thy appetite into


PASTOR AND TEACHER
87
did the Egyptians there was meted out to them pun-
ishments in the form of plagues. The Israelites were
selected to be a chosen people of God, and one of the
first and all-important means named for the fulfilment
of this purpose was the promulgation of statutes and
ordinances respecting their diet and the proper man-
agement of their domiciles. All historians agree that
the Israelites in the times of the patriarchs were a
magnificent people, physically, mentally and morally.
The only people that have approached them in these
respects in modern times were the Puritans of New
England and their descendants down to the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. All these peoples lived,
in the main, upon naturally organized foods, and
history teaches that the nature of the foods people
eat determines the measure of their strength and
success in the fields of human effort.
Naturally organized foods were the portion of the
men who built this nation, but the example set by
these men is no longer followed by the great mass of
their descendants, and the harmful results are plainly
seen in almostevery phase of American life. We enter
the twentieth century utterly unmindful of the pre-
cepts and teachings of the fathers.
Benjamin Franklin believed and taught that a
great source of virtue was in feeding the body upon
naturally organized foods. So emphatic was he in
this teaching that he declared that "he who lives well
is learned enough," and he meant by his saying that
"there was never a good knife made of bad steel"
that there was never a good man made of bad food.
Franklin was supported in his contention by the fact


88
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
that a people were never great, never strong,«except
through the use of naturally organized foods.
Still another honored founder of the American
nation who sought to inculcate the wisdom of proper
living, and taught it by precept and example, was
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and third President of the United States.
Jefferson all through his life was, practically, a vege-
tarian. In a letter written at the age of 76 years, he
says: "I have lived temperately, eating little animal
food, and that not as an aliment so much as a condi-
ment for the vegetables, which constitute my prin-
cipal diet. I use spectacles at night, but not neces-
sarily in the day, unless in reading small print. My
hearing is distinct, and I have not yet lost a
tooth."
Jefferson, like Franklin, died at the age of 84, and
his grandson, Jefferson Randolph, in writing of his
appearance and manners, said: "Dying in his 84th
year, he had not lost a tooth nor had one defective.
His stature was commanding, six feet two and a half
inches, well formed, indicating strength, activity, and
robust health; his carriage erect, step firm and elastic,
which he preserved to his death; his temper, naturally
strong, under perfect control; his courage cool and
impassive. No one ever knew him to exhibit trepida-
tion. His habits were regular and systematic. He
said in his last illness that the sun had not caught
him in bed for fifty years. He always made his own
fire. He ate heartily and much vegetable food. He
never drank ardent spirits or strong wines. He held
in little esteem the education which made men ignorant
and helpless as to the common necessities of life."



THOMAS JEFFERSON





PASTOR AND TEACHER
89
Jefferson labored zealously all through his busy
life for the upbuilding of an American system of edu-
cation which would teach men how to live in accord-
ance with the laws of nature.
In all the teachings of the Old Testament, the care
of the body was enjoined, in many ways set out under
the form of religious duties, such as purifications and
fastings, rules of sanitation and diet—duties which
are observed with the greatest strictness by the mem-
bers of the Jewish Church to this day. Moses, and
after him, the priests of Israel, did not confine them-
selves to counsel or advice in these matters, but they
commanded the observance of the rules and regula-
tions laid down in the Mosaic law.
The Jews were taught to regard sickness as a pun-
ishment for deviation from the religious law in that
regard. Good health was therefore a divine blessing,
which they received as the daily consequence of their
obedience. Regimen was enforced in a mandatory
manner, and the Jews were a hardy and strong people,
and are now regarded as exceptionally healthy and
long lived.
In other religions, similar observances in the form
of fasts and washing-rites are found, together with
regulations in regard to the kind of food which is,
or which is not, proper for man to eat, from a re-
ligious point of view. In primitive times as now,
trouble came to those whose business it was to
look after the weak ones of the community, chiefly
in the shape of their hunger or of their sickness.
A sick person or a weak person cannot do his part
in the social system, or in a religious way, and the
law-givers who were in those days the priests used


PASTOR AND TEACHER
91
the diet of man in his almanac, the ministers should
do in their pulpits, because such led to morality. It
was the Franklin idea of spreading the gospel.
In the Bible are many passages which indicate the
authority used in matters relating to the health of
the people. From them have been selected some
which would serve for texts as a basis for ministerial
action.
BIBLE REFERENCES TO THE FOODS OF MAN.
Genesis 1: 29:
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bear-
ing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you
it shall be for meat.
Psalm 147: 14:
He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the
finest of the wheat.
I Kings 5: 9, last clause:
And thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for
my household (King Hiram of Tyre's appeal to Solomon).
I Kings 5: 11 (Solomon's response to above appeal):
And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of
wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of
pure oil; thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.
Job 20: 14:
Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of
asps within him.
Proverbs 13: 23:
Much food is in the tillage of the poor; but there is that
is destroyed for want of judgment.


92
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
Proverbs 12: 11:
He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread; but
he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
Proverbs 13: 25:
The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul; but
the belly of the wicked shall want.
Genesis 47: 12:
And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and
all his father's household, with bread, according to their
families.
Genesis 47: 23, 24:
Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold I have bought
you this day, and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for
you, and ye shall sow the land.
And it shall come to pass, in the increase that ye shall
give the fifth part unto Pharaoh; and four parts shall be
your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for
them of your households, and for food for your little ones.
Leviticus 19: 23, first clause:
And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have
planted all manner of trees for food.
Nehemiah 9: 20, 21, 25:
Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them,
and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and
gavest them water for their thirst.
Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilder-
ness, so that they lacked nothing.
And they took strong cities and afatland, and possessed
houses full of all good, wells digged, vineyards, oliveyards,
and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were
filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great
goodness.
Proverbs 30: 8:
Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither
poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.


PASTOR AND TEACHER
93
Isaiah 7: 15:
Butter* and honey shall he eat, that he may know to
refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Ezekiell6: 13:
Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy
raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work;
thou didst eat fine flour (not bolted or fine as the people of
this day understand the word), and honey, and oil; and
thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into
a kingdom.
Genesis 43: 11:
And their father Israel said unto them take
of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down
the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices,
and myrrh, nuts, and almonds.
Deuteronomy 14: 3:
Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.
Deuteronomy 12: 32:
What thing soever I command you, observe to do it;
Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Daniel 1: 8:
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile
himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the
wine which he drank, therefore he requested of the prince of
the eunuchs that helmight not defile himself.
Deuteronomy 34: 7:
And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when
he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
Joshua 5: 11:
And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the mor-
row after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn
in the selfsame day.
•Butter of Bible times was curdled milk.


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WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
The Protestant Christian churches do not regard
sanitary observances as a part of their cultus, and
they number only 140 million bodies, which are for
the most part wanting in proper health—if we judge
only from the number of drug-stores and physicians
supported by them.
Luke 9:2:
"And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and
to heal the sick."
This is what the great Exemplar said to His disci-
ples whom he " sent" to preach, and we may assume
that no more important duty was ever assigned to
man. Another great work is found in the teachings—
in fact mandatory directions—of Moses in command-
ing obedience to the dietetic laws of the land. The
first, contemplated a work of help and mercy to the
afflicted, while the latter contemplated obedience to the
law—to live in harmony with which meant to be free
from the afflictions which beset mankind. The preacher
of to-day does not heal the sick, because his religion is
mainly formal and theoretical; nor does he teach the
law of diatetics as did Moses. In both instances he
fails because he lacks the understanding, and he lacks
the understanding through no fault of his, for he is
but the product of some great university or educa-
tional institution which has licensed him to preach.
All man is, is what he is educated to be, and the bur-
dens of mankind in this age are mainly due to the ac-
cumulated errors of the ages gone by, transmitted
and perpetuated with increasing ratio through the
medium of the educational institutions of our coun-
try. While the preacher is enjoined to heal the sick,
it is a fact that a great deal of his time is given to





PASTOR AND TEACHER
97
preaching funerals of the prematurely dead, whereas
had he "healed the sick," or had he taught the true
domestic science of Moses, the occasion for burying
one-third of all the children born under 5 years of age
would not have come to cause the grief of bereaved
parents; and the preacher would have been spared
the further perpetuation of the error, if not offense,
of declaring that the Lord had called these little ones
away from heartbroken parents for some good and
wise purpose.
It is a lamentable fact that the religion of today is
too much like the food man has, for both are unsatis-
fying, and this is true for the same cause—each is but
part of the perfect whole. The preacher gives us a
part of the perfect Christianity of Christ, or adulter-
ates it with some notion of his own, while the food-
products of the tiller of the soil, perfect because a
part of creation, are made unsatisfactory by disinte-
gration, separation, disorganization and adultera-
tion. No doubt the plan whereby man may be a man
in fact, is right, and that abundance of material out of
which to build him according to the plan is vouchsafed
to him. How the preacher can escape preaching to
his flock these truths and still accept the Bible as his
text-book, is one of the problems it would be well to
seriously consider. Were the A B C of proper food and
a true domestic science taught in the schools of our
country along with the A B C of our language and up
through all branches, the handicap which now inter-
venes to prevent man being what he was intended to
be would be removed. All this may be accomplished
through a proper educational system. What we need
in this country is relatively less book knowledge, less


PASTOR AND TEACHER
99
agitate the question with great advantage, and with
concert of action accomplish much good. May we not
suggest that every month the ministers preach from
one of the many good texts found in the Bible on the
food subject, or on domestic science generally, and
insist on turning his church vestry into a cooking
school? This would be practical Christianity, and
the good fruits of such work would be appreciably
felt throughout the land.
That there may be no misunderstanding as to the
product of our educational institutions for which
they are responsible, we may here in conclusion, make
a brief summary. Statistics show that a large per
cent, of all who go into business fail with all attend-
ing want, distress and misery, that the country is
full of tramps and drunkards, that the jails are full to
overflowing, that lunatic asylums decorate our hills,
that institutions for the deaf, the dumb, the defec-
tive and the blind and halt are increasing, while
in the great educational centers, there are more
medicine-shops than food-stores, and nearly every-
body is more or less sick, that 33 per cent, of our
children, in process of building human structures
succumb under 5 years of age; and the aged are de-
crepit, a burden to themselves and friends, taking
years to die, instead of enjoying themselves as they
should with increasing ratio until they " sleep."
We have not found a minister of the gospel, not
one, when this subject was fairly presented to him,
who did not agree, at least in the main, to the correct-
ness of our position, and many are now studying the
subject with earnestness, while some are preaching
this gospel from the pulpits. Many are eager to dis-


100
WISDOM VS. FOOLISHNESS
cover the cause of man's many infirmities and why
the prayers of the church, in respect to the health of
the people, are unanswered. What the world most
needs is a practical as distinguished from a theoretical
religion, and a natural and therefore perfectly prac-
tical food as distinguished from the disorganized stuff
which man is compelled to eat in order to satisfy the
greed of man whose work in the preparation of food-
products amounts to robbing children of their birth-
right. No man sits down to a meal today without
some element of fraud being present, and yet we boast
of our great educational and religious institutions.
In respect to food the way is easy. You may accept
with perfect confidence the proposition that naturally
organized food makes possible natural conditions.