LIBRARY 
 
 CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE 
 
/ 
 
MILK DIET 
 
 AS A REMEDY 
 
 For Chronic Disease 
 
 BY 
 CHARLES SAN FORD PORTER, M. D. 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 BURNETT P. O., CALIFORNIA 
 
 (City of Long Beach) 
 
 1911 
 

 
 
 Cbpyright, 1905, 1908, and 1911. 
 
 By 
 Charles Sanford Porter, tyl. D. 
 
o 
 
 
 Preface to Third Edition. 
 
 Since the first publication of this work in 
 1905, two large editions have been disposed 
 of, and another is required. This is especially 
 gratifying, in view of the fact, that the sale of 
 the book has not been urged, except as one 
 purchaser or patient would recommend it to 
 another. 
 
 The succeeding editions have not differed 
 materially, in describing the method of treat- 
 ment, except in the effort to make the direc- 
 tions more explicit and to provide for certain 
 contingencies. 
 
 The fact that I have a large correspond- 
 ence with people who contemplate taking, or 
 have, or are taking a milk diet in some way, 
 has afforded me every year valuable informa- 
 tion as to their needs, and enabled me to em- 
 phasize, or make clearer, features which may 
 not have been sufficiently plain for everyone 
 in the earlier editions. 
 
 Valuable contributions regarding the 
 
 
treatment are frequently offered me, and, after 
 a thorough test, may be incorporated in the 
 book. 
 
 Unless otherwise credited, all the state- 
 ments made regarding reactions, results and 
 the method of operation of the treatment, are 
 from my own observation. 
 
 Orders for the book have come from every 
 part of the United States, from Canada, Eng- 
 land, and other foreign countries; translations, 
 in whole, or in part, have also been made into 
 other languages. 
 
 I hope the new book will meet with the 
 same favorable unanimity that its predeces- 
 sors received. 
 
 C. S. P. 
 Burnett, California 
 
 January 31, 1911 
 
Table of Contents. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 Preface 3 
 
 Synopsis 7 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 I. Preliminary Arrangements 15 
 
 II. Starting the Treatment 29 
 
 III. Reactions During Treatment 51 
 
 IV. Dyspepsia 75 
 
 V. Constipation 87 
 
 VI. Consumption 105 
 
 VII. Catarrh and Asthma Ill 
 
 VIII. Rheumatism 115 
 
 I X. Various Diseases ,". 122 
 
 X. Psychology of the Milk Cure 135 
 
 XL Rest 142 
 
 XII. Exercise 153 
 
 XIII. After Treatment 164 
 
 Pulse Blank *..... 178 
 
 Measurement Blank 1 79 
 
 Index 181 
 
Disease can only be cured by and 
 through the blood, and its circulation in the 
 living parts of the body. 
 
 Any means that improves the quality, the 
 quantity, and the movement of the blood, will 
 assist in eliminating disease. 
 
 The treatment described in this book 
 maizes the purest and richest blood possible, 
 and ALWAYS increases the amount and 
 rapidity of the circulation. 
 
SYNOPSIS 
 
 Briefly stated the milk cure consists of the 
 following factors: 
 
 I-,. . Complete rest for all the organs of the 
 body except those concerned in the 
 production and circulation of the blood, and 
 those connected with the elimination of Waste 
 and poisonous matter. 
 Q j An ample supply of the only food 
 
 Second ^ at w >n ma ^ e an / mme j/ a / e i arge 
 
 production of blood possible, milfy. 
 r^i . , An unlimited quantity of pure air to 
 oxidize and cool the blood, and carry 
 off the expired gases. 
 
 p., I* Warm water baths, to soften the 
 OUT in s fy nj equalize the circulation, and 
 regulate the body heat and, last but not least. 
 r?*rj.i W hen the body is ready for it. 
 I* mil EXERCISE, to strengthen the mus- 
 cles, expand the lungs, limber the joints, stim- 
 ulate the circulation, increase the elimination, 
 purify the blood, develop normal secretions : 
 train the nerves, and, generally, to fix and 
 make permanent the benefits acquired while 
 resting and building up the body. 
 
PRESS PRINTING COMPANY 
 LONG BEACH, CALIF. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Milk, and milk products, have been used 
 and highly esteemed as food by all nations 
 possessing mammalian animals since the 
 earliest records of history. At the present 
 time some of the older European countries 
 are consuming two or three times as much 
 milk and cheese per capita, as the United 
 States does. 
 
 A good food is a good remedy, and, as 
 disease is only a disturbance of the mechanism 
 of nutrition, it s only natural that the use of 
 milk in ill health should be almost as old as 
 its use as a food in health. 
 
 Hippocrates advised consumptives to drink 
 large quantities of asses' milk. Camel's milk, 
 and whey cures were practiced by the Ara- 
 bian physicians. Homer called the Scythians 
 Galactophagi, or feeders on milk, and He- 
 rodotus describes their methods of handling 
 mare's milk. 
 
 In recent times the popularization of the 
 milk cure has been largely due to the efforts of 
 
10 MILK DIET. 
 
 Russian and German physicians. Karrick, 
 Karel, F. von Nicmeyer, Winternitz and 
 Bremer ha,ve advocated it in the treatment of 
 many chronic diseases. In the United States, 
 Donkin, in 1868 called the attention of the 
 medical profession to the fact that diabetes 
 could be cured by large quantities of milk, 
 and said that some cases could take as much 
 as fourteen pints per day. AVeir Mitchell, 
 who has had, perhaps, the greatest experience 
 of any American physician with chronic dis- 
 ease, says: "It is difficult to treat any of 
 these cases without a resort at some time 
 more or less to the use of milk." 
 
 The use of milk in the diet for nearly 
 all cases of chronic disease, in advised by all 
 the principal textbooks with which I am 
 familiar. The mistake is made by many of 
 them of combining other foods, even meats 
 and eggs, with milk, and, consequently they 
 usually add the proviso "if it agrees." Very 
 few physicians understand the proper amounts 
 of milk to be given, and the proper way to 
 give it in order to assure assimilation. The 
 method of preparing the patient for the milk 
 diet, and his conduct while taking it, had 
 never been published, that I am aware of, pre- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 vious to the printing of the first edition of 
 this work, in 1905. 
 
 My first introduction to the possibilities 
 of an exclusive milk diet was in 1884 while 
 living in New York City. A friend was cured 
 completely and permanently of a rather seri- 
 ous condition, by following the advice of a 
 gentleman recently from Germany and fa- 
 miliar with the milk cures practiced there at 
 that time. Other mutual friends adopted the 
 same plan for the relief of various ills, and all 
 with good results. Shortly afterward I took 
 the "milk cure," as we understood it then, for 
 a condition bordering on nervous prostration. 
 I not only overcame that condition, but was 
 cured of. hay fever which had claimed me as 
 an annual victim for seven or eight years, but 
 has never since returned. 
 
 From that time to the present, I have 
 never ceased to advocate the milk cure, and, 
 of the thousands of cases of chronic disease 
 that have taken the treatment in the manner 
 I recommended, I do not know of one person 
 who has regretted it; I do not know of one 
 that was not benefited. 
 
 Such remarkable results' have, of course, 
 resulted in extending the treatment through- 
 
12 MILK DIET. 
 
 out the country. Many physicians, and 
 some sanitariums, have endeavored to use 
 the method. I regret that many, if not 
 all of these, have made changes in the 
 original plan, which was apparently too 
 simple. Very many times doctors and other 
 patients under my care have advised me to add 
 something to the milk, or to the method of 
 giving it, in order to make the process more 
 mysterious, and more attractive to many 
 people, and more lucrative to myself. They 
 said that people who had suffered for years 
 without relief, traveling to many health re- 
 sorts, and to noted specialists, taking expensive 
 and elaborate treatments, would not easily be 
 induced to use a method apparently o simple 
 as to be within the reach of almost every per- 
 son, or household, without expert advice. 
 
 While admitting the force of the argu- 
 ment, I have always replied that there was 
 only one way to do the milk cure, and that I 
 would go on to the end advocating that way. 
 For twenty-seven years I have watched the 
 results of this way, always willing to add any- 
 thing of real benefit, that would not interfere 
 with the results we were already getting, al- 
 ways investigating methods of treatment that 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 seemed to have merit, or that made claims to 
 be able to do more, or even as much as we 
 could, but, with the exception of the prepara- 
 tion of the patient for the milk diet, and the 
 method of finishing the treatment, it remains 
 practically the same as when first introduced 
 to this country. 
 
 It is true that my experience has shown me 
 what kind of milk gives the best average re- 
 sults, and what parts of the treatment may be 
 omitted or modified in certain cases, and I 
 may also say that I have spent a great deal of 
 lime investigating the why and wherefore, the 
 reason for doing certain things, and not doing 
 others, and the cause of certain symptoms and 
 results that occur during a course of milk diet. 
 
 This book is particularly intended for pa- 
 tients taking the treatment, and those who 
 are under my personal care, or corresponding 
 with me, must be perfectly familiar with it. 
 For this reason it is made as brief and simple 
 as possible, but it contains all necessary in- 
 structions regarding the treatment. It must 
 be read carefully before beginning the treat- 
 ment, and again soon after commencing, unless 
 the patients' condition is such that reading is 
 [inadvisable, when it should be read to them, 
 if possible. 
 
14 MILK DIET. 
 
 The book is not large; the size has been 
 kept down so that almost any invalid can hold 
 the book, and read it, without too much 
 physical or mental effort. 
 
 The present edition has taken a long time 
 to prepare, because it had to be written between 
 the almost constant calls of my daily work, and 
 also because the contents comprise, almost en- 
 tirely, my personal experience. My library on 
 Milk is as complete as I can make it, but in 
 the scores of books, pamphlets, and periodicals 
 on the subject, there is little to draw on that 
 would be of practical use in this work. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 Before commencing a course of milk diet, 
 certain preparations are necessary. These 
 preliminaries must be arranged beforehand, 
 because the treatment always includes com- 
 plete rest, for a time, at least. 
 
 The consideration of the apartment where 
 the patient is to remain is of first importance. 
 It must be remembered that, no matter what 
 the previous habits of the patient may have 
 been in this regard, a very large supply of 
 fresh air will be required, if not at first, within 
 about forty-eight hours. A room may be 
 used, and often is, but the best results, in my 
 experience, have followed the use of outdoor 
 bedrooms, such as pavilions, screened porches, 
 roofs, sheds, lean-tos, or even a good bed with 
 nothing over it. In most climates some pro- 
 tection is required from the rain, snow, sun, or 
 wind. On the whole, perhaps there is nothing 
 more satisfactory than a pavilion, partially 
 
16 MILK DIET. 
 
 boarded or latticed up on the sides, with a 
 good water-tight roof, and insect-proof screen 
 over the openings all around. Some of the 
 openings should extend to the roof, or ceiling, 
 and some of them should come down to the 
 floor. It is the lack of these that prevents a 
 room being equal to an outdoor place; no 
 matter how many windows there may be, there 
 is a dead space above the tops of the windows 
 where warm air accumulates, and there is a 
 space between the bottoms of the windows 
 and the floor where the heavy gases, such as 
 carbonic acid, lie more or less stagnant, until 
 stirred up by some breeze of unusual strength 
 or direction. Dust is also deposited in these 
 dead air spaces. Anyone who has not tried 
 living and sleeping in a space open from floor 
 to roof, even on only .one side, cannot realize 
 what a constant difference there is between 
 the air in such a place and the air in a room, 
 no matter how well ventilated it may seem 
 to be. 
 
 A room is always more or less draughty, 
 with the windows open, while in these outside 
 places the circulation of air, while thorough, 
 is almost imperceptible, so gently and easily 
 is the change made. 
 
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 17 
 
 It is the retaining of the gases and other 
 cast-off material from the hocly in the room 
 that makes indoor life so much more un- 
 healthy, compared with life in the open. The 
 greater warmth, too, indoors, prevents the 
 same degree of oxidation that is possible out- 
 doors. The cooler the air, the purer it is, as 
 a rule, and the more oxygen we are able to 
 absorb. There are probably other substances 
 besides simple oxygen, in fresh air, that are 
 necessary to our wellbeing. 
 
 When you have decided upon a suitable 
 location to stay in while taking the milk, ar- 
 range for a comfortable bed, preferably one 
 with a hair mattress. A hard bed, or a bumpy 
 one, becomes irksome before the skin has de- 
 veloped the protecting pad of flesh that be- 
 longs over the bony points. The head of the 
 bed should be toward the openings where the 
 light and air enter. Do not make the common 
 mistake of putting the feet out in the center 
 space, in a current of air, and the head in some 
 corner where the circulation is at a minimum. 
 The reverse should be the rule. 
 
 Beds with solid headboards or footboards 
 should not be used. Procure an iron bed, or 
 a couch or cot without any headboard. Of 
 
18 MILK DIET. 
 
 
 
 all things do not attempt to sleep in a modern 
 folding bed where the head is put in a box- 
 like space, eminently more suited to the de- 
 struction of one's health than to its restora- 
 tion. 
 
 The bed clothes should be woolen blankets 
 by preference, with linen sheets, fastened at 
 the foot, and folding down from the head of 
 the bed, so that the patient can easily turn 
 down a fold or two when less covering is re- 
 quired. 
 
 In certain cases where there is much per- 
 spiration, or exhalation from the body, it is a 
 wise plan to use a set of bed linen not over 
 twenty-four hours at a time, not necessarily 
 increasing the laundry expense, but putting 
 the change of linen to air while the other set 
 is in use. Remember that it is necessary 
 to stay in bed all the time, except when bath- 
 ing, or performing other necessary acts, and 
 that the skin is an important breathing organ, 
 and must not be surrounded by foul odors. 
 
 The sleeping garments should be changed 
 twice a day, morning and night. I think a 
 gown is preferable to pajamas, because it is 
 very important that there be no constriction 
 around the waist. Garments requiring to be 
 
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 19 
 
 buttoned, or belted, around the waist, inter- 
 fere with the proper development of the or- 
 gans contained in the abdomen, and also pre- 
 vent, to some extent, abdominal breathing. 
 
 I am explicit about these directions, be- 
 cause a very rapid growth and development 
 will take place in the organs, of the digestive 
 system, the stomach, livew, intestines, pan- 
 creas, etc., and this growth is greater in the 
 first week than during any subsequent period. 
 It is during this first week that the success 
 or failure of the milk cure is usually -de- 
 termined, and this growth, or development, 
 MUST not be interfered with. 
 
 If possible, the patient should be within 
 easy reach of the toilet and bathroom. There 
 must be no dressing to go outside the room 
 to a toilet. Have a capacious slopjar in the 
 room and a urinal to use in the bed, especially 
 in cold weather. By having the jar near the 
 bed, the urinal can be used, and emptied into 
 the jar, without getting up, or exposing the 
 person. 
 
 A small table, or stand, about two feet 
 high, is required near the head of the bed, 
 to set the milk can and glass on, and for such 
 other small articles as may be required. 
 
20 MILK DIET. 
 
 A two-quart tin can, or measure, is the 
 most convenient and best receptacle to keep 
 the milk in at the bedside. It is lighter than 
 any pitcher, and unbreakable. Have two nap- 
 kins to cover the milk can and glass between 
 drinks. Two glasses will be needed, marked 
 in some manner to indicate 5, 6, or 7 ounces of 
 milk. A ring can be scratched around a plain 
 glass with a file at the propef point. 
 
 An old established custom in the milk cure 
 is that of using one glass for twenty-four 
 hours, without washing. I still adhere to this 
 plan in my personal practice, unless patients 
 find it disagreeable, or the weather is very 
 warm. In the latter case, it is necessary 
 to serve a clean glass with nearly every quart 
 of milk, or the residue remaining after drink- 
 ing will sour the next glassful of milk. 
 
 Doubtless many patients could use a clean 
 glass every time they took a drink, and still 
 derive the greatest benefit, but it is possible, 
 if not probable, that certain cases would find it 
 unwise to change their glass oftener than 
 once or twice daily. I hesitate to change 
 methods that have proved efficacious for so 
 many years. 
 
 Of the many places which have started 
 
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 21 
 
 up in the last twenty-five )^ears with the inten- 
 tion of giving an "improved" milk diet treat- 
 ment, I do not know of any now in existence, 
 except one or two recent ones. 
 
 A clock must be located where it can 
 easily be seen from the bed. Clocks striking 
 the hours and half hours are a great aid in 
 calling the patient's attention to drinking 
 time. Good clocks of this description can be 
 purchased from $2 up. 
 
 Outside of the necessary articles men- 
 tioned, the less furniture there is the better 
 it will be. Chairs for visitors are not particu- 
 larly required, for there should be no visitors. 
 If absolutely necessary, visits may be toler- 
 ated, but never for longer than half an hour at 
 a time. 
 
 A daily warm water bath will be required 
 and the arrangement of the bathing facilities 
 is one of the things that requires careful at- 
 tention. It is necessary for the patient to' 
 enter the tub while the water is somewhat 
 cooler than the body, and then gradually 
 warm the bath to the body temperature, or to 
 such a temperature as will be entirely com- 
 fortable. This necessitates a reserve supply 
 
22 MILK DIET. 
 
 of hot water, which may be drawn on at in- 
 tervals during the bath as the water cools off. 
 
 The ordinary 30-gallon reservoir, used in 
 connection with a range in most households, 
 is not often satisfactory, because drawing the 
 necessary amount of hot water to prepare the 
 bath leaves no surplus, and it is most annoy- 
 ing to open the hot water faucet and get cold 
 water. 
 
 However, if the tank is full of hot water, 
 and the fire in the stove is kept going it may 
 work all right, but there must be hot water 
 up to the end of the bath. The instantaneous 
 gas heaters, if properly arranged, are satisfac- 
 tory. If the heater is in the bathroom, it 
 must have a flue carrying the fumes outside 
 of the room. The best arrangement is to have 
 a gas heater in connection with a reservoir, 
 preferably in another room, so that the hot 
 water when not being drawn into the tub, will 
 be collecting in the reservoir. I have found 
 the "Reliable" heater, made in Cleveland, per- 
 fectly satisfactory. Those instantaneous heat- 
 ers discharging the hot water directly from 
 the heater into the tub are not so well adapted 
 to the purpose, and some of them are termed 
 by plumbers "contaminating," that is, the gas 
 
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 23 
 
 fumes come in contact with the water, or pass 
 through it as they escape. Water of this 
 character is dangerous to take long baths in. 
 
 There is serious objection to having the 
 water heating apparatus in the bathroom, un- 
 less the room is large and well ventilated. The 
 heater uses up more oxygen than the lungs 
 of several people would. Many fatalities have 
 occurred in Southern California from instan- 
 taneous heaters causing the asphyxiation of 
 the inmates of bathrooms, perhaps chiefly on 
 account of the habit some people have of 
 shutting the bathroom up tightly while bath- 
 ing. 
 
 The tub itself is a matter of considerable 
 importance. I have not yet seen a modern 
 while enameled iron tub that seemed as satis- 
 factory as the old copper tubs, chiefly on ac- 
 count of the shape. The iron tubs are moulded 
 somewhat like a huge box, with flat bottom 
 and vertical sides. Even the head of the tub 
 where the bather's head and shoulders rest, 
 goes almost straight down, whereas the old 
 style had a gentle slope about two and a half 
 feet long, making a comfortable support for 
 the tipper part of the trunk and head. The 
 copper tubs had a rounding bottom which 
 
24 MILK DIET. 
 
 fitted the body better, and did not require so 
 much water to cover one, and the metal itself 
 being thin, was rapidly warmed by the hot 
 water, while the thick iron tubs now used re- 
 quire the expenditure of considerable heat 
 simply to warm up the tub. The iron tubs 
 stand up so high as to be difficult for a weak 
 person to enter, and serious accidents have 
 occurred on account of the bather slipping a p s 
 he left the tub. Another objection is the loca- 
 tion of the overflow so near the bottom that 
 the tub will only hold a few inches of water. 
 This latter fault may sometimes be remedied 
 by unscrewing the fixture and covering the 
 outlet with a thin rubber sheet, or filling it up 
 with putty. Sometimes the overflow may be 
 stopped by simply putting a piece of paper 
 over it, when the force of the water will hold 
 the paper tight against it. The tub ought 
 to be deep enough and long enough to 
 hold sufficient water to cover the shoulders 
 when the patient is extended at lull length, 
 and for this purpose a six-foot tub is usually 
 necessary. A five and a half foot, or even five 
 foot tub may be used by short people, or 
 ladies, but the six foot is best. A canvas head 
 rest may be used, if necessary, or a rubber 
 
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 25 
 
 cushion, or hot. water bag full of air, to rest 
 the head on. The trouble with most ladies is 
 that they object to wetting the hair, while 
 men as a rule, enjoy lying in the tub with the 
 water up to their mouths, and it is best that 
 they should do this. 
 
 The patient should have a bathrobe to 
 wear in going from the sleeping room to the 
 bathroom, and a pair of easy slippers. Felt 
 slippers are the best, as they do not require 
 stockings, and are warm and comfortable. 
 Hundreds of times I have seen patients, after 
 taking a warm bath, leave the bathroom with 
 only bathrobes and slippers on,, go outdoors 
 to their beds, in all kinds of weather, and I 
 never knew of any of them "taking cold." 
 
 In regard to milk, a few necessary general 
 rules will be given here. What is required is 
 good, clean milk as it comes from the cow, 
 without the removal or addition of any sub- 
 stance whatsoever. Boiled, sterilized or pas- 
 teurized milk, or milk artificially preserved in 
 any way, cannot be used for this treatment. 
 
 In well-managed modern dairies the hand- 
 ling of milk is so systematized that there is no 
 particular trouble in keeping the milk sweet 
 until used. Dairies that are not cleanly, or 
 
26 MILK DIET. 
 
 have not proper appliances, often use some 
 means of preserving the milk, by stopping 
 the activity of the acid-forming bacteria. 
 These bacteria are not dangerous to health, 
 and the methods of restraining or destroying 
 them are without effect on the bacteria of con- 
 sumption, typhoid, or other fevers that might 
 contaminate milk in certain places. Pro- 
 longed boiling will destroy any germ, but 
 boiled milk alone will not sustain life in either 
 the infant or the adult. Pasteurizing milk or 
 heating to 150 F., or less, can have no effect 
 on the pathogenic bacteria and renders it un- 
 suitable for human use. Dogs fed on pas- 
 teurized milk only, are liable to have the 
 mange and other disorders, while others of 
 the same litter thrive on sweet and, sour milk. 
 There are several chemical preservatives 
 sold to dairymen by manufacturers who claim 
 they are harmless. They are prohibited by the 
 laws of most states. Some of them containing 
 borax are not exactly poisonous in the amount 
 one would ordinarily get in milk; but they 
 render the milk much less digestible and in a 
 weak baby or invalid adult might readily be 
 the contributing cause of death. Others like 
 salicylic acid, or formaldehyde or formalin, are 
 
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 27 
 
 distinct poisons. There is no harmless pre- 
 servative of milk; whatever prevents its de- 
 composition will also render it more or less 
 indigestible. 
 
 The manner in which milk is handled 
 makes a great difference in its keeping quali- 
 ties. Milk which is cooled and aerated imme- 
 diately after being drawn, will keep for days; 
 while, on the other hand, milk which is left 
 to stand with the animal heat in it, will often 
 be stale within twelve hours, and sour in less 
 than twenty-four hours. 
 
 Milk from Holstein cows is the best for the 
 purpose, next that from Durhams or Short- 
 horns, and last that of the pure Jersey and 
 Guernsey, or Alderneys, as the two latter 
 breeds were formerly called. Milk from Jer- 
 sey cows may be used, but it should usually 
 be skimmed after standing two to four hours 
 to reduce the amount of cream. Many people 
 anxious to gain weight, think they should 
 take all the cream possible. This is a mistake, 
 as the fat in the milk does not normally make 
 flesh in the body. The flesh built up on a 
 milk diet is derived almost entirely from the 
 proteids and carbohydrates, namely: casein, 
 albumin, etc., and milk sugar, If the fat of 
 
28 MILK DIET. 
 
 a full milk diet was deposited in the body it 
 would mean a gain of about half a pound of 
 pure fat daily. 
 
 Milk contains all the salts necessary for 
 the building up of every part of the body. It 
 has iron, potassium, phosphorous, sodium, 
 lime, magnesium, fluorin, etc., and altogether 
 contains about twenty elements. 
 
 Dairy milk, or milk from a herd of cows 
 gives a more even average of fat and other 
 contents than the milk from one cow would. 
 There is no advantage in having one cow set 
 aside for your use, unless by so doing you 
 secure Holstein milk. 
 
 The milk should be delivered fresh, morn- 
 ing and evening, about two-thirds of the total 
 quantity in the morning, and one-third at 
 night. In the cities the milk is usually ten to 
 fourteen hours old before being delivered. 
 Many of my patients have taken the diet suc- 
 cessfully under these conditions, but I think 
 the average results- are better with fresher 
 milk. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 STARTING THE TREATMENT. 
 
 In severe cases of illness, the success of the 
 milk cure depends on the faithfulness with 
 which the details are followed. Some of these 
 details often seem unimportant to those who 
 know little of the treatment, but, in any case 
 where a successful result has not been ob- 
 tained, it has always been easy to point to 
 faults of commission or omission. 
 
 It is true that many people have derived 
 great benefit from a milk diet taken otherwise 
 than as I advise, or only partially following 
 my instructions, but I believe that the plan I 
 give herein is one that is always successful, 
 enabling the patient to x take the proper 
 amount of milk, and secure the desired results, 
 without any danger. 
 
 Before commencing the milk diet, it is 
 usually advisable, and often necessary, to take 
 a fast from ordinary foods. 
 
 For the ordinary case, where the digestion 
 
30 MILK DIET. 
 
 is more or less impaired, and particularly 
 where constipation is present, the fast should 
 continue at least 36 hours, hut the patient is 
 allowed to eat ripe fresh and dried fruits, in 
 such quantities as may he eaten with a relish, 
 and as much water may he taken as possible 
 with comfort. 
 
 While I have often started patients on 
 milk only five or six hours after their last 
 meal, sometimes I have regretted it and 
 thought that a day's fast would have saved 
 time. If there is a class of patients who can 
 do without the fast, it is the thin, weak, 
 anemic people, such as consumptives, neuras- 
 thenics, etc., especially those whose bowels are 
 in the habit of moving freely every day. Such 
 patients take milk greedily; v they soak it up 
 like a sponge, there is no initial constipation 
 nor nausea, and the rapid increase in circula- 
 tion causes a quick elimination of the im- 
 purities in the blood and bowels. 
 
 On the other hand, those who are stout, 
 plethoric, rheumatic, gouty, dropsical, consti- 
 pated, or who have had skin or blood disease, 
 diabetes, headaches, coated tongue, prolapsed 
 or dilated stomach, or any displaced organ, 
 should take at least one day's fast, and many 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 31 
 
 people will be benefited, and gain time in the 
 end, by extending the fast over several days. 
 
 Those who are not accustomed to fasting 
 periods are usually agreeably surprised to find 
 there is no particular inconvenience to this 
 part of the program, and when the time comes 
 to start in drinking milk, it goes down with a 
 relish; the stomach makes no objection, and 
 the bowels move naturally. Another import- 
 ant consideration is the fact that the organs 
 of digestion are, so to speak, caught at low 
 tide, at their minimum bulk and activity, and 
 building up rapidly in size and function, as 
 they do on the milk diet, while the mind and 
 body are in a state of as complete rest as possi- 
 ble, there is a natural tendency to make good 
 cells, good tissues, and healthy organs, and to 
 overcome any abnormal habit or loss of nat- 
 ural function that may have been contracted 
 by any organ. 
 
 During the fast it is not necessary to take 
 rest, or refrain from the usual work or habits; 
 in fact I think most patients are benefited by 
 active exercise the day before commencing the 
 milk. 
 
 In -beginning the diet, take the weight in 
 the morning, with as little clothing on as pos- 
 
32 MILK DIET. 
 
 sible. Make a list of what you wear, and at 
 the end of the week, wearing the same outfit, 
 weigh at the same hour of the day. More- 
 exact results are secured by emptying the 
 bladder each time before weighing. 
 
 Measurements should be taken of the 
 limbs, hips, waist, neck, and especially of the 
 chest, both expanded and contracted, and 
 comparisons made from time to time. 
 
 In regard to the amount of milk to be 
 taken, I will make the following statement: 
 The average adult, when consuming daily 
 two to four quarts of milk containing 4 per 
 cent, of butter fat and 9 per cent, of other 
 solids, will not lose flesh; with another quart 
 or two they will gain weight, and with a still 
 further increase of a pint or two they will se- 
 cure the necessary energy and stimulation to 
 throw off disease. 
 
 There are several arbitrary rules as to the 
 quantity necessary, such as taking an ounce 
 and a half of milk for each pound of the 
 normal weight or the highest weight in health, 
 or, taking a quart of milk for every foot in 
 height, but none of these will fit all cases. 
 They are, however, a useful guide, especially 
 in estimating the amount to be given children, 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 33 
 
 when the first rule can be safely followed. 
 
 The last thousand cases that I have had 
 under observation have averaged about six 
 quarts of milk daily, containing from 3^ to 
 4 per cent, of butter fat, and 9 per cent, of 
 solids not fat. The males usually go over that 
 amount, and the average female patient will 
 take slightly less. 
 
 It is wrong, if not positively dangerous, to 
 attempt the exclusive milk diet on any amount 
 of milk less than that required to noticeably 
 stimulate the circulation and promote body 
 growth. A possible exception might be made 
 in the case of convalescents from severe, acute 
 fevers, where a few glasses of milk daily 
 might keep them going temporarily until the 
 ability to digest solid food was recovered. 
 Even in those cases, water would be a safer 
 drink, and probably would do as much good. 
 
 There is no half-way method of taking the 
 milk diet for people who have much the mat- 
 ter with them. Enough milk must be taken 
 to create new circulation, new cells, and new 
 tissue growth, and cause prompt elimination 
 of the w r aste and dead matter that may be 
 poisoning the system. 
 
 A patient should start with the full amount 
 
34 MILK DIET. 
 
 of milk; cases that begin on a smaller quantity 
 and try to work up to the proper amount, 
 often fail to get the best results. They get 
 the stomach in the notion of taking three or 
 four quarts, and then find it difficult to in- 
 crease the amount, while those who start on, 
 say, six quarts daily, have little or no 
 trouble after the first day or two. In begin- 
 ning in this way we take the stomach by 
 surprise, and as the milk keeps coming, the 
 stomach is compelled to dispose of it, and 
 soon does so, in the natural way, without 
 difficulty. It is rather common for patients 
 to say, the afternoon of the first day, that 
 they feel so full they cannot take another 
 glass, but as they continue taking the regular 
 quantity, ways and means are provided, and 
 the sensation disappears the same day or that 
 night, and does not return. 
 
 On the contrary, if you humor the 
 stomach, and stop when it desires you to, you 
 will likely have to repeat the whole process. 
 
 It must be remembered that stomachs of 
 this kind are not normal, and have been out 
 of condition so long that they are not compe- 
 tent judges of what is best for them. 
 
 On the morning the milk diet is com- 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 35 
 
 mcnced, the patient remains in bed and takes 
 the first drink as soon as the milk is available, 
 but. starting on the even hour, or half hour, 
 and takes the same amount every half hour, 
 "['he next, and following day's drinking begins 
 as soon as the patient is awake in the morn- 
 ing, using the milk supplied the previous 
 evening. The amount of milk taken in 
 twenty-four hours is calculated from the time 
 the first glass of the new day's supply is 
 taken, until the same time the next morning. 
 
 If six quarts is the daily amount, use a 
 glass marked to contain six ounces; if seven 
 quarts is the allowance, take seven ounces in 
 a drink. If five and a half quarts are taken, 
 the glass should hold five and a half ounces, 
 and so on. Using these amounts there will be 
 32 drinks taken in twenty-four hours. If the 
 first drink is taken at 6 a. m., and none are 
 missed, by 8:30 p. m. 30 drinks will have been 
 taken, two to be taken anytime in the night 
 when awake. 
 
 This is the only way that such an amount 
 of milk can be absorbed by a weak stomach; 
 and it IS always absorbed, digested, or dis- 
 charged, where the directions here given are 
 followed. 
 
36 MILK DIET. 
 
 It is necessary to be exact as to the time 
 and quantity taken. Each glass should he 
 sipped slowly, taking several minutes to finish 
 it. The milk must he mixed with the secre- 
 tions of the mouth. Do not gulp it, or let it 
 run down the throat, as you might water. 
 Now and then I come across a patient who 
 will take long draughts of milk, say two 
 ounces at a pull, hut drawn into the mouth in 
 a rather small stream. They are young people 
 with active salivary glands, and doubtless the 
 action of sucking the milk through a small 
 mouth opening, at the same time draws saliva 
 into the mouth. Such patients say the milk 
 tastes better to them taken in that manner 
 than it does when taken in small swallows 
 and "swished" around in the mouth by the 
 tongue, but the latter is the safest way to 
 start on. A straw, or glass tube, or drinking 
 cup may be used. 
 
 Many patients sleep more than half the 
 time. If asleep when drinking time comes, 
 take your glass when you awaken, but do not 
 try to make up for lost time. Continue thirty 
 minutes apart. Milk is supposed to require 
 about one and a half hours for digestion, and 
 all dietetic plans before this have allowed at 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 37 
 
 least that much time between meals. I use 
 the half-hour interval because it gives the 
 best results. Milk is curdled as soon as it 
 arrives in the stomach; the salts and water 
 begin to be absorbed immediately, other por- 
 tions are passed on to the intestines, where 
 the fat is quickly absorbed by the lacteals. 
 The nitrogenous portions may not be taken up 
 into the blood for twenty-four hours. So it 
 is useless to set any particular time for the 
 digestion of milk or other food. Doubtless a 
 part of the milk will still be in the stomach 
 at the end of thirty minutes, but its mixture 
 with a fresh portion lias no bad effect. On 
 the contrary it works well in practice. 
 
 A patient, in describing the effect, once 
 said : "After fairly started the first glasses 
 seem to pull the others after them by suc- 
 tion." 
 
 Tf an invalid's stomach is very weak, or 
 particularly deficient in the digestive juices, 
 and especially if the milk is taken too rapidly, 
 tough curds may be formed in the stomach, 
 which are slow and hard to digest. In the 
 vomit of persons who Were drinking quanti- 
 ties of milk too quickly, or at too low a tem- 
 perature, I have seen these cheesy bodies so 
 
38 MILK DIET. 
 
 large and firm that it seemed impossible that 
 they could have come up through the 
 oesophagus. Where the conditions that I 
 recommend as to rest, bathing, air, and the 
 small frequent and regular drinks of milk 
 have been followed, I have never known of 
 these curds being formed in such amounts as 
 to prevent their digestion, with the exception 
 of a few very weak people who were attempt- 
 ing to take their milk cold, or at the tempera- 
 ture of the room. 
 
 I usually start patients on milk which is 
 near the room temperature, or at least not be- 
 low 60 degrees F., but if there are symptoms 
 within the first two or three days of indiges- 
 tion, distress in stomach, nausea, or vomiting 
 of thick curds, the patient goes on warm milk 
 immediately and does not take any cold milk 
 for two or three weeks. 
 
 Tn cold weather, if any trouble of this 
 
 kind is anticipated, it is better to start on 
 
 warm milk at the beginning, but in nineteen 
 
 cases out of twenty, especially in mirtid 
 
 weather, it is unnecessary to warm the milk. 
 
 On cold nights, if drinking the cold milk 
 prevents the patient getting to sleep again, 
 provision should be made for warming it. 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 39 
 
 There is only one satisfactory way of 
 warming the milk, and that is to have a pan 
 containing about three inches of warm, al- 
 most hot, water, and set each glass of milk 
 in it for two or three minutes until it is 
 warmed through. The milk ought to be about 
 blood heat, although it can be heated in this 
 way to 120 degrees without harming it, but 
 Ihe milk must not be left long in the water, 
 and must be taken immediately. No more 
 than one glass can be heated at a time. The 
 most convenient way of keeping the pan of 
 water hot is a small oil stove, kept burning 
 continuously at such a heat as may be neces- 
 sary. If the patient has no nurse the whole 
 arrangement must be set near the bed so the 
 patient can prepare the milk without getting 
 up. Taking this warmed milk, according to 
 the other directions, indigestible curds are 
 never formed. 
 
 The secretions of the mouth may have no 
 digestive action on milk, as there is no starch 
 in the latter, but the mechanical effect of the 
 addition of the fluids is important. Outside 
 of the milk cure, some weak stomachs can 
 take milk diluted with water, and assimilate 
 it, where straight milk disagrees. Infants are 
 
40 MILK DIET. 
 
 usually given milk largely diluted with water, 
 but a healthy infant can generally take pure 
 milk without trouble. In any case the water 
 should be gradually reduced and omitted as 
 soon as possible. Skimmed milk is often 
 easier for a weak stomach to digest than full 
 milk. Milk from which the cream has been 
 extracted by a centrifugal separator is better 
 for dietetic purposes than ordinary skim milk, 
 and either is preferable to milk diluted with 
 water. 
 
 The taking of at least one or two drinks 
 during the night is a valuable assistance in 
 getting clown the necessary quantity of milk. 
 Constipated people should never omit this. 
 It is not necessary to give the stomach a rest 
 while taking the milk cure. It does not need 
 a rest on an exclusive milk diet, any more 
 than a baby's stomach does. Other organs are 
 resting, but the stomach is being built up to 
 a state of maximum efficiency. It is very 
 unwise to omit drinking the milk at a regular 
 time because you don't feel like taking it. If 
 the stomach has been out of order for a long 
 time, there may be a good many disagreeable 
 symptoms, such as bad taste in the mouth, 
 thick coat on the tongue, gas on the stomach, 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 41 
 
 with considerable pain, nausea, and even vom- 
 iting, hut none of these should prevent the 
 patient taking- the regular drinks. The omis- 
 sion of a glass or two, instead of making one 
 feel more comfortable, really has the opposite 
 effect, because the constant, regular proces- 
 sion of milk through the alimentary canal is 
 interfered with, and it begins to "come back," 
 when, if the milk was kept going down, it 
 would carry the gas down with it into the in- 
 testines, where it belongs. If, in a case of 
 this kind, the milk is stopped for some hours, 
 all disagreeable symptoms cease, and the pa- 
 tient will find he has a better stomach than 
 he had before starting the treatment, but 
 the cure has only been a partial one, and it 
 may be even harder to get over the critical 
 point next time. 
 
 It takes a long experience in this work to 
 give one the necessary confidence to tell a 
 patient to continue the treatment under these 
 circumstances, but it is an absolute fact that 
 I have never seen any harm result from stick- 
 ing to the diet, (while resting,) and the 
 troubles are only the natural explosions due to 
 the revolution going on in the stomach. If 
 there is any better way to cure an old chronic 
 
42 MILK DIET. 
 
 case of indigestion, with a shrivelled up, 
 weakened and almost juiceless stomach, I 
 never discovered it. 
 
 If the patient is lacking in will power, a*nd 
 cannot, or will not, take the regular amount of 
 milk each time, it is a great deal better to take 
 half a glass than none, and resume the full 
 amount at the earliest possible opportunity. 
 
 Fortunately, there are very few people who 
 have such a hard time on the milk diet, and 
 they are most all elderly people who have been 
 in ill-health for many years. But even in this 
 class of cases, less than two per cent, have 
 failed to carry on the treatment to a satisfac- 
 tory result. 
 
 The patient must have a warm bath daily, 
 and it is usually taken in the forenoon. 
 Where there is any tendency to insomnia the 
 bath can be given in the evening and usually 
 has a good effect in overcoming that trouble. 
 The first bath should last only 15 or 20 min- 
 utes, increasing the time about 15 minutes 
 every day until the patient is staying in the 
 water at least one hour. Use no soap in the 
 bath. 
 
 The bath should be prepared with a tem- 
 perature of 94 or 95 F., and, as soon as the 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 43 
 
 bather becomes accustomed to this sudden 
 change from the air temperature, he should 
 gradually add hot water until he feels per- 
 fectly comfortable, neither hot nor cold. The 
 thermometer will then indicate about 98 or 99, 
 although people differ several degrees in their 
 sensations. The temperature must be kept at 
 this point until nearly ready to leave the bath; 
 then enough hot water should be added to 
 produce a thoroughly warm feeling through- 
 out the body. . 
 
 These three items in regard to the water 
 temperature must be remembered: 
 
 Start slightly below body temperature, 
 Increase to the body temperature, 
 Finish almost hot, (but never enough to 
 cause dizziness.) 
 
 In very hot weather I have found it .wise to 
 reduce the temperature of the bath at the start 
 a few degrees to abstract heat instead of 
 adding it. The principle to be followed is to 
 keep the patient entirely comfortable, and if, 
 for any reason, he is not comfortable, he 
 should get out of the bath. 
 
 Having the water too hot on entering will 
 cause a slight attack of indigestion, in the 
 
44 MILK DIET. 
 
 same way that a hot bath affects one when 
 taken too soon after a full meal. 
 
 The bathroom must be ventilated in every 
 way -possible, and the milk taken at the reg- 
 ular time while bathing. 
 
 Ladies who object to wetting the hair can 
 wear rubber bathing caps, but it is better to do 
 without them. The circulation of blood in the 
 scalp is so much greater than usual that the 
 warm skin dries the head rapidly and there is 
 no discomfort where the hair does not have to 
 be "put up" immediately. With very serious 
 cases it is better to cut the hair to a conven- 
 ient length ; it grows rapidly and will be much 
 stronger. Tn any case the hair ceases to fall 
 out, for it responds quickly to the general con- 
 dition of the body. 
 
 Regarding bathing by females during the 
 menstrual period, I will say that I have never 
 known of any harmful result from the prac- 
 tice, but if they prefer, the baths may be omit- 
 ted for a few days at this time. 
 
 One seldom need be afraid of putting the 
 ears under water. If the eardrum is perfor- 
 ated the ear can be plugged temporarily with 
 cotton. I have seen deafness unexpectedly 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 45 
 
 cured by the combined diet and bullring wlrile 
 ur.dcrcroing 1 treatment for other diseases. 
 
 The proper way to take the bath is to have 
 enough water to submerge all the body ex- 
 cept the face and lie at perfect ease with all 
 muscles relaxed and the shoulders supported 
 by the sloping head of the tub, or some con- 
 trivance such as a water bag, air cushion or 
 canvas strap. 
 
 Breathe deeply and occasionally sink the 
 face under water, closing the nostrils, if nee-- 
 essary, with the thumb and finger. 
 
 On finishing the bath do not use cold 
 water or the shower bath, and if possible 
 avoid draughts of cold air, not from any 
 danger of "catching cold,'' but to prevent the 
 stimulation to the skin. 
 
 The reasons for giving baths of this 
 description, and the benefits derived from 
 them, will be explained in another place. I 
 will only say here that I would not undertake 
 to give the milk and rest cure without the aid 
 of these baths. 
 
 On getting out of the tub, the patient 
 should dry himself with a soft towel, without 
 unnecessary rubbing, or exercise, put on his 
 bathrobe, and return at once to bed. Weak 
 
46 MILK DIET. 
 
 patients may have the aid of a nurse in drying 
 the skin and returning to their apartments. 
 
 I think the minimum time for a milk diet 
 course should be four weeks. Three weeks 
 shotrld be devoted to the rest cure, and the re- 
 maining week will be sufficient to gradually 
 get the patient up, and on solid food. In a 
 considerable number of cases patients may 
 continue using milk as a diet, if their circum- 
 stances permit, after resuming their occupa- 
 tions, or ordinary habits. I have letters from 
 different people who state that they have lived 
 on milk for long periods, often several years, 
 in one case 21 years. All these persons began 
 the use of milk for some serious ailment, and 
 yet every one of them seems to be in a state of 
 vigorous health and vitality now. The case of 
 Dr. Herman Schwartz, an Austrian physician, 
 who has lived on milk exclusively for 23 years, 
 is interesting, as from all accounts he is in the 
 best of health and strength. He is said to take 
 three gallons daily. One of the best public 
 speakers on the Pacific Coast has lived wholly 
 on milk for four years. 
 
 If milk can be taken often enough one can 
 endure mote cold than on any other diet. I 
 have lived in the open air in winter with pa- 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 47 
 
 tients where we had to thaw the milk before 
 we could use it. You can get more energy and 
 heat out of a quart of milk than an Esquimo 
 can out of a pound of blubber. 
 
 T can state here as a positive fact that an 
 immense amount of physical or mental labor 
 may be done on a milk diet. A young friend 
 of mine lived on about five quarts of milk per 
 day during two terms of college just before 
 graduation and won second honors in a class 
 of over 300, and finished in fine physical con- 
 dition. His board cost him about $10 per 
 month. 
 
 Prof. Weir Mitchell in "Fat and Blood," 
 page 125, says: "I. have seen several times ac- 
 tive men, even laboring men, live for long per- 
 iods on milk, with no loss of weight; but large 
 quantities have to be used two and a half 
 to three gallons daily. A gentleman, a diabetic, 
 was under my observation for fifteen years, 
 during the whole of which time he took no 
 other food but milk and carried on a large and 
 prosperous business. Milk may, therefore, be 
 safely asserted to be a sufficient food in itself, 
 even for an adult, if only enough of it be 
 taken." 
 
 The gifted writer, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wil- 
 
48 MILK DIET. 
 
 cox, says: "I believe in the milk diet, because I 
 have taken it with results so marvelous, and so 
 beneficial, that all Mr. Rockefeller's money 
 could not repay me, were I deprived of the 
 knowledge that I gained by the experience. A 
 man of my acquaintance who destroyed his di- 
 gestion by years of wrong habits, has lived for 
 the last five years in perfect health and 
 strength on milk alone. He is able to work 
 more hours with less fatigue, than any of his 
 acquaintances. He possesses a marvelous 
 complexion and is never ill. 
 
 "Another friend who had been a hopeless 
 invalid for ten years, through complications of 
 diseases, has lived on milk for three years, and 
 finds herself perfectly well unless she attempts 
 to return to solid foods. A dozen skilled phy- 
 sicians failed to give her even three days of 
 health, until she gave up foods for milk. Sev- 
 enteen other personal friends restored their 
 health, and the ability to digest a natural, var- 
 ied diet, by taking the milk treatment for a 
 few weeks." 
 
 Where it is the intention of patients to 
 keep on with the milk diet for very long after 
 stopping the rest cure, it is advisable for them 
 to take larger doses, at less frequent intervals. 
 
STARTING THE TREATMENT 49 
 
 Some patients who had been a long time on a 
 half-hour schedule, with a corresponding 
 amount of milk, have said that they found it 
 difficult to eat enough food at one time to last 
 them until the next meal. There is usually no 
 difficulty in taking twice the regular quantity 
 of milk every hour instead of half as much 
 every half hour. This gives more time 
 between drinks for exercise, or business af- 
 fairs, and, T think it tends to fit the stomach 
 better for the distention of a regular meal, 
 when ordinary diet is resumed. 
 
 Business men often carry a handbag full of 
 Mason pint fruit jars, containing milk, and 
 drink one of these at convenient times. Quite 
 a number of old patients have been able to 
 drink a quart of milk at one sitting. 
 
 But these experiments must not be tried 
 until the stomach is taking the small and fre- 
 quent doses without any discomfort, and the 
 bowels are moving regularly. If the stomach 
 is not handling easily the smaller drinks, it 
 will be of no use to attempt the larger ones. 
 
 A course of four weeks should ordinarily 
 be sufficient to cure any of the following dis- 
 eases : 
 
 Nervous prostration, general debility, mild 
 skin troubles such as pimples, sallowness, 
 
50 MILK DIET. 
 
 wrinkles, etc., simple anemia, catarrh, bilious- 
 ness, constipation, dyspepsia, indigestion, hay 
 fever, piles, insomnia, ulcer of the stomach, 
 malaria, arterio sclerosis (hard arteries) neu- 
 ralgia, neurasthenia, tobacco, morphine and 
 cocaine habits and the first stage of diseases 
 like consumption, rheumatism and kidney dis- 
 ease. 
 
 w 
 
 In more advanced cases of the last four 
 named or other chronic organic diseases the 
 diet can be continued as long as visible im- 
 provement is made, or until cured. 
 
 It may be well to say here that there are 
 crises that come on in the course of the treat- 
 ment, due to the revolution that is taking 
 place in the body. None of them is an indica- 
 tion to stop the milk, quite the contrary. The 
 most common is an eruption on the skin of the 
 face, body or limbs, usually coming out during 
 the second or third week. I have seen large 
 pimples and boils, but none that ever left a 
 scar. . 
 
 I wish to speak particularly of crises oc- 
 curing in special organs that are or have been 
 the seat of disease. You may think there is a 
 recurrence of the disease, but do not have the 
 slightest fear. After the inflammation or ex- 
 citement has subsided the part is always in a 
 better condition and probably entirely healed 
 for the first, time. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 
 
 Before taking up the consideration of the 
 different diseases, I will here describe some of 
 the reactions that take place on a full milk 
 diet. 
 
 To begin with the circulation of the blood, 
 we notice directly, in every case, a most re- 
 markable change. Within two hours after 
 commencing the diet, the action of the heart 
 will be accelerated, and within 12 to 24 hours 
 there will be a gain of about six beats to the 
 minute. Within two or three days there will 
 be an increase of about twelve beats to the 
 minute; the pulse will be full and bounding; 
 the skin flushed and moist; the capillary cir- 
 culation under the fingernails, or wherever it 
 may be examined, quick and active. All this 
 takes place with the patient lying as quietly as 
 possible, making no movement unless neces- 
 sary conditions under which normally on an 
 
52 MILK DIET. 
 
 ordinary diet, the circulation would be much 
 slower than usual. 
 
 No one can deny the benefit of this condi- 
 tion in chronic disease. It is a result sought 
 by every intelligent doctor, knowing that 
 through the circulation only, can chronic dis- 
 ease be cured. None of the usual methods of 
 heart stimulation, such as alcohol or other 
 drugs, exercise, massage, hot and cold baths, 
 inhalations of oxygen, solutions injected into 
 the veins, or transfusion of blood, can equal 
 the results of the milk diet treatment in effect, 
 in permanency, in total lack of danger. This 
 natural, physiological increase of circulation 
 results from the increased amount of blood, 
 created in the natural way, by the stomach 
 and intestines, acting on an easily assimilated 
 food. 
 
 There is no dangerous strain on the heart, 
 because the heart itself is the first organ to 
 share in the benefits derived from the better 
 blood circulating through it. Many patients 
 with serious disease of the heart, organic or 
 functional, valvular or nervous disorders, have 
 taken the milk diet and I have* never heard of 
 any but good results. There is no reason to 
 expect otherwise with patients having com- 
 plete rest. 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 53 
 
 Nor is there any danger to the kidneys, in 
 spite of their greatly increased work, for in- 
 valids with badly diseased kidneys take the 
 milk diet successfully. Some patients, it is 
 true, have slight pains in the kidneys during 
 the first days of their treatment. It is always 
 temporary, and due, I think, to a rapid 
 growth of the organs, so rapid that the sen- 
 sitive covering of the kidneys is stretched 
 tightly at first. 
 
 The amount of urine is very much in- 
 creased by this diet, and no matter what its 
 previous condition, whether highly acid, or 
 loaded with solids or salts in solution, it be- 
 comes bland, non-irritating, and almost as 
 clear as water. 
 
 The frequency of urination is a little 
 troublesome at first but in a few days the 
 bladder seems to be able to retain a larger 
 quantity without discomfort; more fluid 
 leaves the body in the perspiration, which is 
 increased by the improved capillary circula- 
 tion in the skin, and probably the lungs 
 throw off more moisture. However, even 
 then many patients will find it necessary to 
 get ii]> in the night once or twice. It is not 
 advisable to hold the urine very long, as a 
 
54 MILK DIET. 
 
 portion of the water may be reabsorbed into 
 the system. 
 
 It is really wonderful how the various 
 parts of the body accommodate themselves 
 to the great changes which they undergo on 
 the milk diet. It is only possible because 
 the greatly increased blood supply brings 
 with it all the necessary materials to make 
 these changes, and a plentiful supply of 
 nourishment for every cell, of every tissue. 
 
 In ill health there is always one or both 
 of two conditions of the blood, viz.: 
 Insufficient quantity, 
 Abnormal quality. 
 
 Disease is a result' of a disturbance of the 
 mechanism of nutrition. There may have 
 been predisposing or exciting causes in the 
 way of bacteria or heredity, bad food, air, or 
 habits, but as the abnormal condition be- 
 comes apparent to us, we see the evidence of 
 some disturbance of the processes of nutri- 
 tion. 
 
 There is a continuous battle on between 
 the forces that build up and the forces that 
 pull down ; between the cells that do good 
 and those that do harm." Nature is always 
 endeavoring to maintain a normal standard 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 55 
 
 against any agent or condition that may at- 
 tempt to alter it. And when temporarily or 
 accidentally that standard may be departed 
 from, we see immediately an attempt to re- 
 pair the damage. 
 
 No matter what the abnormal condition 
 may be, whether a cut or bruise of the skin, 
 an ulcer in the lung, or the presence of some 
 poison in the system, there is a continuous 
 effort on the part of the natural forces, al- 
 ways acting through the circulation, to re- 
 store the normal condition, and we .can assist 
 that effort by supplying a proper quantity of 
 such food as may be easily turned into blood. 
 
 On the condition of the blood depends the 
 outcome of the struggle, whether life or 
 death, a short or long illness. 
 
 The circulation of the blood is nature's 
 agent in eliminating disease, and, increasing 
 the quantity and rapidity of the blood cur- 
 rent while improving its quality will assist 
 that elimination. 
 
 In a great many maladies,, whether 
 caused by errors of diet or not, the digestive 
 or bloodmaking power is weakened, and to 
 continue the usual food, or to take mixtures 
 of meat, eggs, starchy materials and various 
 
56 MILK DIET. 
 
 drinks, including milk and alcoholic bev- 
 erages, increases the burden on organs al- 
 ready overtaxed. 
 
 If, in addition to the mixed diet, the pa- 
 tient is given medicines for the relief of pain, 
 or for the reduction of temperature, stim- 
 ulants or sedatives for the heart, cathartics 
 for the bowels or diuretics for the kidneys, 
 expectorants and emetics, hypnotics and 
 narcotics, etc., etc., any one or more of 
 them, the problem . for the circulation to 
 solve becomes indeed a complex one, for each 
 and every medicine must act through the 
 blood, whether given by the stomach or 
 through the skin. Even such a simple hy- 
 gienic measure as bathing, by bringing the 
 blood to the skin and away from the internal 
 organs, interferes with digestion, if that pro- 
 cess is not already completed, or of the most 
 simple character. 
 
 The action of the heart, as I have said, 
 is always accelerated, soon after commenc- 
 ing the milk diet. There is no reaction 
 from this condition. The effect continues 
 with the diet, but after a varying time the 
 heart may slow down a little because it has 
 become strong enough to do the work with 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 57 
 
 fewer pulsations. The arteries continue full. 
 The heart hypertrophies physiologically, just 
 as a woman's heart does in her first preg- 
 nancy. I have observed it many times. 
 
 Every organ in the body is hyperemic, or 
 congested with blood, when in active opera- 
 tion, and as the activity increases, so does 
 the blood supply. 
 
 There can be no growth, or rebuilding, or 
 regenerating of any portion of the body, with- 
 out an amount of blood being present in ex- 
 cess of the ordinary tissue-nourishing 
 quantity. 
 
 A condition of anemia, or lack of blood, 
 will never be found, when the body is suc- 
 cessfully overcoming disease. 
 
 \Ye hear a great deal, in these days, of 
 hyperemia as a curative agent, following 
 the ideas of Prof. Bier, and using hot air ap- 
 paratus to cause a local congestion of the 
 diseased parts. 
 
 The use of such apparatus indicates that 
 the natural circulation is defective and un- 
 able to push the necessary amount of blood 
 into the part. 
 
 I Jut in thus interfering with the circula- 
 
58 MILK DIET. 
 
 tion, how can we be sure that we are im- 
 proving matters? 
 
 Do we know how to force just the proper 
 amount of blood to a diseased part? 
 
 Where does the blood come from? 
 
 Is not the remainder of the body weak- 
 ened, or left without protection? 
 
 Does not such apparatus bring the blood 
 more to the surface and away from the deep- 
 er and perhaps diseased parts? 
 
 Why not increase the blood supply na- 
 turally all over the body? Why use appara- 
 tus to cause a local congestion when there is 
 a w.ell-known function of the body to attend 
 to just such things, if given the material to 
 work with ? 
 
 When we suffer an injury to any portion 
 of the body, such as a bruise, a burn, 'a for- 
 eign body needing removal, or 'the presence 
 of irritating bacteria, or their products, we 
 do not have to wait for the application of 
 any artificial apparatus. The congestion be- 
 gins at once, through the vaso-motor system, 
 ordered and controlled by the sensory and 
 sympathetic systems of nerves. There is nev- 
 er any mistake about it; the congestion ap- 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 59 
 
 pears promptly in exactly the right spot and 
 no other. 
 
 Suppose harmful material has gained ac- 
 cess to the circulation, he it chemical, bac- 
 terial, or simply a loading up with the natural 
 poisons of the body which have failed to be 
 eliminated. Fever results. Fever is only a 
 name for general hyperemia, and hyperemia 
 is absolutely necessary to throw off or neu- 
 tralize the poison. 
 
 If there is enough healthy blood present 
 in the circulation, or if it is manufactured 
 as rapidly as may be required to carry off 
 the poisons, the system is able to overcome 
 the danger and restore the normal condition. 
 
 New and healthy blood is necessary to 
 perform cures ; old blood, stagnant blood, im- 
 pure blood, (from improper foods) no matter 
 how much of it there may be, is ineffective. 
 
 In dropsical effusions there is always 
 plenty of blood fluid, but of such a character 
 that the hyperemia set up to repel disease 
 only makes the tissues waterlogged. 
 
 Every case of dropsy that has taken the 
 milk diet in my experience, has received im- 
 mediate and permanent relief. 
 
 The heart beats vary greatly in number 
 
60 MILK DIET. 
 
 in different persons. I have started several 
 patients on the milk diet whose customary 
 pulse rate was around 40 per minute. One 
 lady started with 36, and before the end of 
 the first week showed about 75 per minute, 
 while resting in bed and exerting herself as 
 little as possible. From being a ehronic in- 
 valid, almost bedridden, weak, listless, almost 
 'bloodless, without appetite, she became 
 a strong well woman, and has never lapsed to 
 her former condition. 
 
 In patients with fever and rapid pulse 
 there is usually a slowing of the heart and 
 nearly always a reduction of the temperature. 
 This effect is chiefly caused by the larger 
 blood current more easily removing the fever 
 products, and by the cooling of the blood 
 through dilatation of the cutaneous blood ves- 
 sels, and by increase of perspiration. 
 
 It is very unusual for a patient to have a 
 temperature above the normal while on milk 
 and resting, no matter what the previous con- 
 dition may have been. If the fever does not 
 fall below 100 soon after the patient's bowels 
 are moving naturally, a serious condition is 
 indicated. 
 
 The stimulation of a full milk diet is very 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 61 
 
 similar to the primary effects of alcoholic 
 stimulation on the circulation, but the after 
 results are entirely different, due to the fact 
 that the blood carries with it the food neces 
 sary to repair the increased tissue waste. 
 
 Stimulation by alcohol is followed by a 
 period of depression which is impossible with 
 milk. Continuous stimulation by alcohol 
 causes inco-ordination of muscles which never 
 follows that of milk. Indeed, the spasmodic, 
 uncertain movements of the hand in writer's 
 cramp may be permanently cured by a proper 
 milk diet. 
 
 The effect on the lung's is to quicken the 
 breathing at first; then as the respiratory- 
 muscles strengthen, the inhalations become 
 deeper. No matter what disease one may 
 have, the breathing capacity is increased. The 
 circumference of the chest enlarges and the 
 measurement on inspiration increases week 
 by week over that of expiration. The enlarge- 
 ment is too great to be accounted for by in- 
 crease of muscular tissue or subcutaneous fat 
 around the chest. 
 
 These changes, remember, take place while 
 the patient is taking the rest cure. The mus- 
 cles all over the body increase in size. 
 
62 MILK DIET. 
 
 To one who has had no experience with 
 this treatment, it seems incredible that the 
 muscles should not only rapidly increase in 
 size, but become much harder. Yet it is a 
 positive fact that the voluntary muscles of 
 the body become, firm and solid, almost like 
 an athlete's limbs after a hard course of 
 training. And this, too, while the patient is 
 lying abed all the time, except when attending 
 to the necessary calls of nature, or taking the 
 daily bath. And that bath a warm one, usual- 
 ly considered weakening! 
 
 People are too apt to compare a patient 
 taking the rest cure with one in the last stages 
 of chronic disease, or bedridden from the 
 weakness accompanying typhoid or other 
 fevers. 
 
 As a matter of fact the two conditions are 
 entirely different. In the latter case, the pa- 
 tient is compelled to take to his bed because 
 he is ill and weak and unable to take or assim- 
 ilate nourishment, and the food that is given 
 him does little or no good, and may be really 
 harmful, as he has no appetite and lacks the 
 necessary secretions to properly digest food. 
 
 But the great majority of patients taking 
 the milk cure are "walking cases." Indeed, 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 63 
 
 many of them demur at the idea of going to 
 bed at first. But go to bed they must to take 
 the milk properly, and, after the preliminary 
 fast, they usually have all the necessary ap- 
 petite and the right condition of the stomach, 
 to take milk easily, 'and taking the amount 
 usually given, they are taking more nourish- 
 ment than the ordinary person takes, even 
 while doing hard work. But milk is, so far as 
 T know, the only food that can be taken in full 
 amount with benefit, while enjoying as perfect 
 rest as may be possible. 
 
 The hardness of the muscles, on a milk 
 diet, is due largely to the fact that they are 
 pumped full of blood, like all the other organs 
 of the body. 
 
 And, it is well to recall the fact that the 
 internal organs themselves contain a great 
 system of muscles. Not voluntary muscles, it 
 is true, but muscles that are controlled by the 
 wonderful sympathetic system of nerves; 
 muscles which do their work without any ef- 
 fort or knowledge of the will; muscles that 
 work while we sleep. Without them digestion 
 would be impossible, for every movement of 
 the stomach and intestines and the food pro- 
 
64 MILK DIET. 
 
 ducts contained in them is due to these mus- 
 cles. 
 
 The whole alimentary canal, (oesophagus, 
 stomach and intestines,) contains in its wall 
 a double layer of these jnvoluntary muscle 
 fibers, part of them circling around the organ, 
 and the remainder distributed lengthwise, and 
 through the combined efforts of the fibers, 
 the contents of the canal are mixed with the 
 various digestive juices, and gradually pushed 
 onward until absorption has taken place, and 
 the residue has been expelled. 
 
 That is what takes place in the healthy in- 
 dividual without any consciousness or as- 
 sistance, on his part. But in the invalid these 
 small but important muscles are thin and 
 weak and unable to do their duty. It is not 
 unreasonable to suppose that they build up 
 and resume their normal functions just as do 
 the external muscles, while a person is on a 
 full milk diet. Indeed, although we cannot 
 see these internal muscles develop, we have 
 plenty of evidence that they do, as for in- 
 stance, the increased size of the abdomen, the 
 larger capacity for food, the facility with which 
 the unusual amount of fluid and solid mat- 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 65 
 
 ter is~ handled, and the much larger amount of 
 feces discharged. 
 
 This increased power of the intestinal mus- 
 cles, and the restoration of the peristaltic 
 movement, is all that is necessary, in many 
 cases, to overcome constipation. 
 
 All the muscles, as I stated above, increase 
 in size. I have noted an increase in the thigh 
 of over an inch in a week. The abdomen is 
 always first to show an enlargement, then the 
 thighs and buttocks, although at the same 
 time the neck, shoulders, arms and face are 
 making visible progress. The calves do not 
 make a corresponding gain while the patient 
 is resting, but rapidly assume proper propor- 
 tions on being called on to support the body 
 in walking. 
 
 The rapid increase in girth of the abdomen 
 is very significant. It means that the thirty- 
 odd feet of the alimentary canal are being de- 
 veloped. From the condition so often seen at 
 autopsies where persons have died of malnu- 
 trition and the intestines are thin and juice- 
 less, perhaps as brown and almost as dry as 
 the casing from a bologna sausage, they are 
 changing to the thick, juicy and normal con- 
 dition of an infant's bowels. 
 
66 MILK DIET. 
 
 41 
 
 The circulation of capillary blood vessels 
 and lymphatics in and around the intestines is 
 greatly increased on a milk diet. The fat of 
 milk is in such minute globules that it is ready 
 for absorption by the lacteals and from them it 
 is carried almost directly into the venous cir- 
 culation. The large amount of fluid in milk 
 which must pass through the blood before 
 leaving the body, the greatly increased 
 amount of fat, sugar, nitrogenous matters and 
 salts in the right proportion and condition re- 
 quired for nourishment, stimulate the mil- 
 lions of glands lining the canal and they are 
 compelled to increase in size and capacity. 
 
 This abdominal increase is very largely in 
 the-walls of the stomach and intestines at 
 first. Later on there will be more or less fat 
 deposited subcutaneously. Every healthy per- 
 son has a protecting pad of fatty tissue in 
 front of the intestines and stomach. 
 
 This intestinal development and enlarge- 
 ment is necessary to insure proper digestion 
 and assimilation, but is occasionally objected 
 to by ladies who note the loss of a wasplike 
 waist and the necessity for a new wardrobe 
 with regret. They do not, however, object to 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 67 
 
 the increase in the size and symmetry of the 
 limbs and bust, the rilling in of the hollows in 
 the neck, the smoothing out of the facial 
 wrinkles and the "peaches and cream" com- 
 plexion that goes with it. 
 
 I am able to offer some comfort by inform- 
 ing them that a portion of the waist develop- 
 ment will disappear when they become more 
 active and another portion will be lost when 
 they quit the milk diet, but with a correct 
 manner of living and sufficient nutritious food 
 the stomach will never return to the previous 
 abnormal condition. 
 
 During the last few years, I have noticed 
 an increased number of invalids with disorders 
 of the bowels, principally the colon. These 
 people have usually given a history of "ca- 
 tarrh," or "inflamation of the bowels," often 
 of constipation, and rarely of diarrhea. Some 
 of them say they are full of acid and rheu- 
 matic. In a small percentage of these cases, 
 I notice the amount of milk they can take is 
 limited, because an excess brings on diarrhea. 
 They may take three and one half quarts of 
 full milk daily, but another pint causes a 
 watery, acid, diarrhea. 
 
 In the case of a patient commencing the 
 
68 MILK DIET. 
 
 milk diet and taking about six quarts, should 
 diarrhea occur and continue more than thirty- 
 six hours, with passages loose, sour, or green- 
 ish, or containing small undigested curds, it 
 is evident that the bowels are unable to di- 
 gest all the food. The amount, therefore, 
 must be reduced about half until solid move- 
 ments occur only once or twice daily. Too 
 little will cause constipation, and then the 
 amount must be increased. I have seen cases 
 where a variation in the daily amount taken, 
 of two glasses, would make the difference be- 
 tween constipation and diarrhea. 
 
 When the proper dose is found, these pa- 
 tients receive great and lasting benefits. On 
 less than four quarts, the gain in weight is 
 about half that of the usual milk diet, and 
 this is rather discouraging to them, but in 
 every case of this kind where the quantity of 
 milk has been carefully adjusted to the con- 
 dition of the bowels, the ultimate result has 
 been very satisfactory. 
 
 Several ladies who were below weight and 
 affected in this way only gained about two 
 pounds a week w r hile on milk, but on return- 
 ing to ordinary habits and diet, continued to 
 gain at an even greater rate, and remained 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 69 
 
 free from troubles for which they took the 
 milk cure. 
 
 The skin, including- the hair and nails, 
 shows decided reactions in the milk cure. A 
 healthy skin is a rarity nowadays, and the 
 average candidate for the milk cure, with bad 
 digestion, poor circulation^ and probably kid- 
 ney trouble, shows plain evidence of his in- 
 ternal disease by a great variety of skin dis- 
 orders, ranging from the pale, white, and the 
 dry leathery skin, to various forms of erup- 
 tions and inflammatory conditions. 
 
 Remarkable changes take place in this im- 
 portant organ. The capillary circulation 
 grows faster, perhaps, in the skin, than in any 
 other part of the body. The prolonged 
 warm baths greatly assist in this improve- 
 ment, by softening up the dead cells of the ex- 
 ternal layers, and by the moisture and warmth 
 penetrating to the deeper layers. No matter 
 lioxv cold or dry or flabby or wrinkled the skin 
 may be, between the warm baths externally 
 and the increased amount of blood internally, 
 the skin always seems to get back to a healthy 
 condition. Patients who had not visibly per- 
 spired for years, show a perceptible sweat 
 within a few days, and frequently the skin 
 
70 MILK DIET. 
 
 starts up action suddenly a short time after 
 the patient has gone to sleep in the evening 
 and he wakes up bathed in perspiration. I 
 have seen such cases where not only the bed 
 linen, but the mattress as well, were so soaked 
 with sweat as to require changing. 
 
 Such a climax, weakening and discourag- 
 ing to some invalids on an ordinary diet, has 
 just the opposite effect on the milk diet, be- 
 cause it is the result of increased capillary cir- 
 culation, and not due to weakness of the blood 
 vessels and thin, watery blood, as in the or- 
 dinary "night-sweats." 
 
 If the warm, moist skin be rubbed, soon 
 after starting on the milk diet, one can often 
 notice little black rolls of dirt, dead cells, and 
 waste matter discharged through the sweat 
 glands, and the odor coming from the skin 
 saturates the atmosphere of the room, and will 
 be found excessively strong on opening the 
 bed to air, especially with rheumatic patients. 
 Indeed, the rooms of these patients smell like 
 a vinegar factory for a few days. 
 
 A rapid increase in body weight occurs 
 to every one taking the milk diet, no matter 
 what their previous condition or disease. 
 While this is usually welcome, there are cer- 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 71 
 
 tain patients who do not desire it, but they 
 have to accept it, at first anyway, becauae it is 
 impossible to take the cure correctly without 
 gaining in weight. 
 
 Someone has divided the human race into 
 r\vo classes those who are too fat, and those 
 who are too thin, and while the milk cure ap- 
 peals more to the latter class, yet it seems 
 to me that stout people get just as much bene- 
 fit from it as thin ones, but it is harder to in- 
 duce them to take it. The gain in weight 
 made by a person who is overweight or about 
 normal, is not as great as that made by a thin 
 or emaciated person. The latter will take on 
 weight rapidly, almost as a sponge soaks up 
 water. Most of them are poorly nourished, 
 whether they are eating much or little, and 
 the milk alone, taken under proper conditions, 
 seems to be just what they need, and they 
 build up all parts of the body very easily. 
 The average gain in weight is about five 
 pounds the first week, and after that about 
 half a pound daily. This latter rate continues 
 for weeks, or months, until they are near the 
 normal weight. The greater increase for the 
 first week is, in some measure, due .to the fact 
 that they have had more or less of a fast be- 
 
72 MILK DIET. 
 
 fore commencing the diet, and are consequent- 
 ly almost empty, and in a good condition to 
 assimilate nearly all of the milk. 
 
 A gain of twelve pounds the first seven 
 days has been made under my observation, 
 and only recently a young man gained ten 
 and a quarter pounds in his first three days, 
 but his was a very exceptional case, as his 
 stomach had been in such a wretched state 
 that he had been unable to retain even the 
 simplest food previous to taking the treat- 
 ment. I started by giving him small and fre- 
 quent doses of carefully warmed milk, while 
 he was resting completely, in bed. Beyond a 
 very slight pain in the stomach at first, he had 
 no discomfort at any time, and. rapidly re- 
 gained his health. 
 
 I am often asked if the average rapid gain 
 of flesh is not too great to form healthy tis- 
 sues, and even if it may not be unsafe. 
 
 I say, emphatically, that all this increased 
 weight is made up of healthy tissues and that 
 there is absolutely no danger while taking 
 complete rest. 
 
 There are certain preparations advertised, 
 by the use of which, it is claimed, rapid gain 
 is made in weight, while eating ordinary 
 
REACTIONS DURING TREATMENT. 73 
 
 foods. I have seen very injurious effects from 
 the use of some of these drugs, and I regard 
 such methods as wholly unnatural. The flesh 
 gained is probably largely fat, and the digest- 
 ive organs, instead of being built up and fitted 
 for normal digestion, are worse off than before 
 taking the medicine. 
 
 The gain made on milk diet, while rest- 
 ing, is not principally fat, as some people im- 
 agine. An increase of an inch a week in an 
 emaciated person's thigh, between the knee 
 ciiid the hip, cannot be called fat. There is 
 very little fat in this part at any time, but 
 there is an enormous group of muscles and it 
 is the growth of these muscles that pro- 
 duces the enlargement. The muscles in- 
 crease because they are distended with blood. 
 
 The inunction of fat, or so-called flesh 
 foods, or "oil rubs," cannot produce any per- 
 manent benefit and may cause considerable 
 harm. The massage may temporarily stim- 
 ulate the circulation, but it would be better to 
 practice it without the oil. 
 
 I recall only a few cases occurring in my 
 experience which lost weight in the first week, 
 while taking the amount of milk I had pre- 
 scribed. 
 
74 MILK DIET. 
 
 Two of these suffered from valvular dis- 
 ease of the heart, and after the initial loss 
 went on as usual, gaining weight and health. 
 
 Another case had been the subject of se- 
 vere surgical operations and lost several 
 pounds at first, but then gained at a fairly 
 satisfactory rate. 
 
 Two gentlemen suffering from diabetes 
 lost weight on the milk diet (6 quarts) for a 
 few days and both quit the treatment, but 
 seemed to have derived some benefit from the 
 short course. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 DYSPEPSIA. 
 
 Probably the simplest trouble that may be 
 treated by the milk cure is dyspepsia, or in- 
 digestion. 
 
 Usually brought on by an incorrect way of 
 living, when the condition is relieved and the 
 patient instructed how to avoid a return of 
 the disorder, there is no good reason why he 
 should ever suffer from it again. 
 
 When you tell people that they are not eat- 
 ing right, they may say they eat the same as' 
 oilier members of the family who are appar- 
 ently having no trouble. Now, it is a fact that 
 there are no two people with stomachs just 
 alike. Among thousands of cases who have 
 taken the milk diet under my observation, I do 
 not remember any two who acted, or reacted 
 just the same. With a score of patients tak- 
 ing the milk diet at the same time, with all 
 conditions as to amount of milk, time and 
 manner of taking just the same ; all resting in 
 
76 MILK DIET. 
 
 bed, all bathing daily, everything just the 
 same, as nearly as may be, yet no two will 
 have the same symptoms. 
 
 With some the bowels are constipated; 
 others have a diarrhea, some have regular 
 movements. Most people have a chalky white 
 color to the stools at first; some start off with 
 a normal yellow color. Some of those with 
 white stools will suddenly change to a deeper 
 tint, as the liver starts up; others make the 
 change very gradually. 
 
 Some patients complain of a bad taste in 
 the mouth; others never have it. Most of 
 them have a heavy coating on the tongue, at 
 first brownish or yellow, later white; others 
 manage to keep their tongues clean. Great 
 variety is observed as to the way the milk 
 tastes. Most patients seem to have a relish 
 for it, in greater or less degree, others declare 
 it is just like taking medicine and they only 
 take it for the effect. Some will say it tastes 
 very sweet, like sugar; others that it has a 
 bitter or sour taste. Precisely the same milk, 
 mind you. The disagreeable taste may disap- 
 pear at any time, and perhaps not return. 
 
 It is very seldom that patients become 
 hungry on the milk diet, and where they do, it 
 
DYSPEPSIA. 77 
 
 probably is because they are not taking their 
 milk regularly. But there have been cases 
 who felt like eating most of the time during 
 the first two weeks. In these rare cases the 
 era vine has been generally for some special 
 article of diet, as bread, or some kind of veg- 
 etable or fruit. I have never known anyone 
 to desire meat, except once or twice a wish 
 was expressed for fat, crisp bacon. 
 
 Thirst, is a very rare symptom while on the 
 milk diet, and I do not remember any patients 
 in Xe\v York who took water in addition to 
 their milk, but in California I have seen sev- 
 eral such cases, perhaps due to the drier at- 
 mosphere. There is probably no reason why 
 wafer should not to taken during the treat- 
 ment, but I hardly see the need of it, as most 
 patients get over five quarts of water in their 
 milk daily. 
 
 It is not uncommon for those taking the 
 milk to wish for something sour, and partic- 
 ularly sour fruit, apples, oranges and even 
 lemons. Others prefer the sweet fruits, 
 peaches, plums, grapes and melons. Nearly 
 everyone relishes dried fruits like figs, dates, 
 prunes and apricots, and all these are fre- 
 
78 MILK DIET. 
 
 quently useful in overcoming the initial con- 
 stipation. 
 
 In the matter of sleep patients vary 
 widely; some want to sleep all the time, while 
 others only sleep a few hours at night. Cases 
 of insomnia sometimes notice no improvement 
 for several nights, and then, all at once, they 
 begin to sleep like children. 
 
 I have taken considerable space to explain 
 how the milk diet affects different people, 
 while speaking of dyspepsia, because nearly 
 every disease is accompanied by more or less 
 stomach trouble, although the symptoms are 
 quite varied. 
 
 Indigestion is almost a national disease 
 with Americans, and in very many cases it is 
 due to imperfect breathing, or lack of exercise, 
 and overeating. 
 
 There is not much use of my wasting the 
 reader's time in giving advice as to the 
 amount of food they should eat, or what kinds 
 they must avoid and what they may eat, and 
 how long they should chew it, and how many 
 meals they should take, because all dyspeptics 
 have had plenty of such advice, without being 
 cured, but I will, later on, give some direc- 
 
DYSPEPSIA. 79 
 
 tions to be followed after putting the stomach 
 in good order by the milk diet. 
 
 I firmly believe that defective breathing is 
 more of a cause of dyspepsia than over-feed- 
 ing. Few people realize how important 
 breathing is to health. We breathe mainly to 
 absorb oxygen. The function of oxygen is to 
 combine with the food we eat, and if sufficient 
 oxygen is not taken into the system to oxidize 
 the food, indigestion results. 
 
 Food is taken into the body just as fuel is 
 taken into a furnace, for the same purpose to 
 be burned up. and burning always means ox- 
 idation. A lamp or a stove cannot burn with- 
 out a plentiful supply of oxygen, nor can the 
 human body perform its functions more than 
 a minute or two without air. 
 
 Oxygen should really be considered a food, 
 for none of the regular foods would be of any 
 use in the body unless they combined with 
 oxygen. 
 
 Some people never breathe right; many 
 people work and sleep in places where the air 
 is bad, and, while it is possible for either class 
 to enjoy fairly good health, if the defective 
 breathers have to breathe the bad air, the re- 
 sult is always ill health. 
 
80 MILK DIET. 
 
 A man may work every day in a place 
 where the air is impure and lacking in oxygen, 
 and yet, if his work calls for vigorous exercise, 
 and therefore copious breathing, he may ap- 
 pear to be in the best of health. 
 
 But let the shallow breather work in the 
 same place, at some sedentary occupation, and 
 before long his health fails, he becomes pale- 
 faced, anemic, has less strength, less endur- 
 ance. His desire for food decreases, and what 
 he does take is not thoroughly digested, hence 
 he has less blood, and that of a poorer qual- 
 ity. Perhaps, realizing that his stomach is not 
 performing its functions properly, he assists 
 it with some digestive medicine, or he takes 
 foods that are recommended to him because 
 they are predigested. In either case he may 
 notice an apparent improvement, but in either 
 case he has further weakened his stomach by 
 usurping its natural functions, and if the 
 primary cause of the trouble is not remedied, 
 his temporary expedients will soon fail to have 
 even an apparent or transient effect. 
 
 I want to make this point clear: We can- 
 not habitually perform for the body any of its 
 functions that should naturally be performed 
 
DYSPEPSIA. 81 
 
 unaided, without weakening the part con- 
 cerned. 
 
 \\'e cannot use massage or kneading of the 
 bowels for any length of time to produce de- 
 fecation, without weakening the natural per- 
 istaltic movement of the intestines; nor can we 
 use cathartic medicines long without the same 
 result. 
 
 The stomach should digest our food, and 
 we cannot live on predigested foods long, 
 without weakening those glands which nor- 
 mally secrete the digestive juices. 
 
 We certainly cannot add pepsin to our 
 food before we eat it, without taking away the 
 function of the peptic glands, and, while they 
 may have been .secreting too little pepsin be- 
 fore, they are likely to produce still less when 
 the food comes into the stomach already pep- 
 tonized. 
 
 The simple act of cooking, which is one' 
 kind of prcdigesting, may, in some cases, be 
 a contributary cause of weak digestion. Our 
 digestive apparatus was originally designed to 
 work on uncooked foods, for fire was a later 
 invention, and all animals at the present time, 
 except man, use by preference uncooked foods. 
 
 We are too much inclined, in the hurry and 
 
82 MILK DIET. 
 
 worry of modern life, to eat those things that 
 may be swallowed and digested quickly, with- 
 out regard to the ultimate effect on the 
 stomach. 
 
 Pro-f. Einhorn says : "The diet in health 
 should not always comprise the most easily 
 digestible substances. For by so doing we 
 weaken our digestive system." 
 
 Stomachs can be spoiled by giving them 
 too little to do, and they must be able to di- 
 gest much that is difficult of digestion, as well 
 as that which is easily digested. 
 
 But, aside from the fact that the stomach 
 must be able to take care of such foods as 
 come to it on an ordinary diet, the great ques- 
 tion remains, are these predigested foods able 
 to make as good blood as natural foods do? 
 
 It is a fact, that the great majority of pa- 
 tients applying for relief from digestive trou- 
 bles are in the habit of using foods designed 
 to save the stomach some of its natural work. 
 
 A story I hear very often runs about this 
 way: "Some time ago my health began to 
 fail; my stomach was bad, and the only thing 
 I could eat with comfort was Somebody's 
 breakfast food (or Dr. So-and-so's prepared 
 food, or some grain combination claiming to 
 
DYSPEPSIA. 83 
 
 be predigested and already to eat.) But while 
 this food caused no distress, I have been get- 
 ting weaker and weaker, and cannot touch the 
 ordinary food that my family eat." 
 
 And these people always lay stress on the 
 statement that they have been very careful of 
 their stomachs! 
 
 Most of these prepared cereal foods are 
 steamed or boiled into a mush, with various 
 ingredients like salt, glucose, molasses, or 
 malt, added. Then they are usually either 
 made into a dough and baked, and ground up 
 into crumbs, or rolled into flakes and parched. 
 After being sealed up more or less tightly in 
 pasteboard boxes, they are ready for sale. 
 When finally the retail dealer gets such foods, 
 they may lie on the grocery shelves for 
 months before being sold. Every country 
 store is stacked to the ceiling with prepara- 
 tions of this kind, for which an artificial de- 
 mand was created by enormous advertising, 
 but when the, advertising stops, so does the 
 demand. 
 
 The manufacturers of many of these pro- 
 ducts, who have become rich by buying cheap 
 cereals, or grains that have already been used 
 in making malt liquors, and selling them for 
 
84 MILK DIET. 
 
 ten times their cost, employ high-salaried ad- 
 vertisement writers, who dilate on the clean- 
 liness and thoroughness with which the goods 
 arc handled and cooked, but I do not believe 
 that stuff prepared in this manner can be of 
 much service in the human stomach, and even 
 animals refuse it unless they are very hungry. 
 T do not include in this class foods like 
 Germea, which is not cooked, nor sterilized by 
 any chemical method, nor the rolled prepara- 
 tions of wheat, oats, a'nd rye. The latter are 
 steamed for some time, and while still wet are 
 run between rollers and pressed into thin 
 flakes. After drying the product is ready for 
 marketing. Such rolled grains do not pretend 
 to be more than partly cooked and are sup- 
 posed to be thoroughly recooked before serv- 
 ing. Grain prepared in this manner does not 
 lose its vitality, or blood-making power. 
 Some grocers raise the objection that such 
 foods do not keep for long periods, like the 
 ready-to-eat, sterilized brands, as they are apt 
 to be attacked by weevils and other insects. 
 This, in my opinion, is a pretty good test of 
 the food quality of an article. Insects, with 
 their magnified sense of sight, smell, and 
 taste, are better judges of the food value of an 
 
DYSPEPSIA. 85 
 
 article than hitman beings. As an example, I 
 have known ants to find an opened package of 
 Germea on a pantry shelf, and when dis- 
 covered, the wise little animals had a line 
 many yards long between the cereal and their 
 nest. Each ant returning to the nest carried 
 a little particle of the food, doubtless for the 
 nourishment of 'the home" colony. An in- 
 structive feature of the incident was the fact 
 that the ants, to get at the preferred article, 
 had to climb over several opened packages of 
 other foods, each of which was guaranteed by 
 the manufacturer to be all ready to eat. 
 
 The cause of much indigestion, particular- 
 ly of starchy foods, is deficient secretion of 
 pancreatic fluid. Digestion of starchy foods 
 is either performed by the action of the saliva, 
 in the mouth and oesophagus, or after passing 
 through the stomach, by the juice secreted by 
 the pancreas. The stomach itself has no ac- 
 tion on starch. 
 
 The pancreas is very often at fault in peo- 
 ple of sedentary habits, and, if such people do 
 not very thoroughly chew their bread, pota- 
 toes, etc., and thereby largely digest the 
 starch before it is swallowed, it passes 
 
86 MILK DIET. 
 
 through the stomach unchanged and is very 
 apt to ferment in the intestine. 
 
 Persons with this trouble can often live in 
 comfort on meat, eggs, fruits, and non-starchy 
 vegetables, but bread, for them, is by no 
 means the staff of life. 
 
 The secretion of a healthy pancreas, which 
 is discharged into the small intestine, amounts 
 to about a pint in 24 hours. This amount may 
 be greatly reduced, in ill health, through in- 
 activity of the gland. Total absence of the 
 juice, from disease or removal of the gland, 
 results fatally. 
 
 The pancreatic juice is of great importance 
 in the digestion of milk, and on a milk diet, 
 the gland becomes very active, and presuma- 
 bly returns to a healthy condition, for, on re- 
 suming a normal diet, patients do not suffer 
 from starchy indigestion and fermentation. 
 
 Other forms of indigestion, or inability to 
 digest certain foods, as berries or acid fruits, 
 nuts, and certain vegetables like cabbage, are 
 always completely cured by this treatment. 
 
 To sum the matter up in a few words, it 
 puts the stomach in a normal, healthy condi- 
 tion. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 CONSTIPATION. 
 
 Constipation is a very frequent accompani- 
 ment of digestive disturbances, and while it is 
 usually only a symptom in itself, and disap- 
 pears as the trouble which caused it is cured, 
 it deserves separate consideration. 
 
 It is my impression that a great deal of 
 constipation, or irregularity of the stools, is 
 due to the fact that many people do not know 
 how to attend to the important function of de- 
 fecation. They either do not understand it, or 
 '.hey wilfully neglect it. 
 
 A little study of the parts involved, and 
 I heir physiological action will be interesting 
 and instructive. 
 
 Food, after passing through the small in- 
 testine rather rapidly, enters the colon, or 
 large intestine, as a liquid, or of a liquid con- 
 sistency. The fluid is largely absorbed during 
 the slower passage through the large intes- 
 tine, leaving a residue of feces to be dis- 
 charged from the rectum. 
 
88 MILK DIET. 
 
 The large intestine is about five feet long, 
 including the rectum; which comprises the 
 last eight inches. The rectum, like the rest of 
 the intestinal canal, has involuntary muscles 
 in its walls, running both longitudinally and 
 circularly. The circular musclar fibers near 
 the outlet are increased in thickness and form 
 a well defined ring, about one inch wide, called 
 the internal sphincter muscle. Just beyond 
 this, but entirely separate from it, is the ex- 
 ternal sphincter, of voluntary fibers, which 
 ordinarily keeps, the anus closed. 
 
 Now notice the different kind of muscles 
 composing the internal and external sphinc- 
 ters. The external sphincter is a sort of 
 purse-string muscle, under control of the will, 
 which keeps the outlet closed except when we 
 wish to discharge the contents of the rectum. 
 The internal sphincter, is, like all the rest of 
 the muscular fibers in the intestinal wall, an 
 involuntary muscle, and we cannot directly 
 compel it to open or shut by will, power, no 
 matter how much we may desire it. 
 
 The contents of the intestinal canal are 
 propelled onward by peristaltic, or worm-like 
 movements, which are entirely involuntary. 
 
 These movements are caused bv wave-like 
 
CONSTIPATION. 89 
 
 contractions of the muscles in the walls of 
 the tubes, each "part of the tube as the wave 
 reaches it, narrowing its caliber, and then 
 gradually relaxing and dilating. This wave 
 of contraction is gentle, and progresses slowly 
 from above downword. The advancing wave 
 is always preceded by a wave oi relaxation, or 
 inhibition. When we inhibit or relax the ten- 
 sion of the muscular fibers in any circular or- 
 gan, as intestine or bloodvessel, the organ 
 naturally dilates and the space in its center 
 becomes larger. 
 
 As the contents of the large intestine ar- 
 rive at the rectum they are composed of un- 
 digested and indigestible matter, about 75 per 
 rent, of water, and considerable waste mater, 
 including cast-off cells, inorganic salts, putrid 
 products, and bacteria. When a sufficient 
 (|iianlily of feces has arrived in the rectum 
 there is felt a need of expelling it. This sen- 
 sation varies greatly, according to the amount 
 of matter present, and the susceptibility of 
 the individual, but principally owing to ihe 
 nature of the discharge. If the matter is 
 raiher solid, and of a non-irritating nature, it 
 may be retained in the rectum for hours, or 
 even days, while if it be watery or acrid, as in 
 
90 MILK DIET. 
 
 diarrhea, the strongest effort of the will is 
 sometimes insufficient to keep the external 
 sphincter closed and prevent a passage of the 
 contents. 
 
 The act of defecation is normally an invol- 
 untary one, as may be seen in infants and an- 
 imals on a natural diet. In most adults it he- 
 comes partly voluntary, owing to a variety 
 of causes, such as the habit of preventing the 
 stool until a convenient time, and to un- 
 hygienic habits in general. The voluntary 
 part is, however, smaller than generally sup- 
 posed, consisting mainly in the relaxation of 
 the outlet, and the compression of the abdom- 
 inal contents by holding the breath and con- 
 tracting the diaphragm and abdominal mus- 
 cles. 
 
 The compression of the abdomen, or 
 straining, practiced by many persons, and 
 particularly constipated people, usually does 
 more harm than good. It has no effect on 
 matter in ( the lower part of the rectum, as 
 Professor Foster says in his Textbook of 
 Physiology: "A body introduced per an urn 
 into the empty rectum is not affected by even 
 forcible contractions of the abdominal 
 walls." 
 
CONSTIPATION. 91 
 
 Tf the peristaltic movement is not operat- 
 ing in the rectum, and the internal sphincter is 
 not properly relaxed, we should not try to 
 have a movement. If, under these unfavor- 
 able circumstances, after long straining, we 
 do succeed in our object, what happens is 
 about as follows: We have so compressed the 
 abdominal portion of the large intestine that 
 its contents, perhaps unready for the move- 
 ment, are squeezed downward, while the ab- 
 sorption of the fluid portion is unnaturally 
 hastened, and matter thrown into the blood 
 that should have been further elaborated in 
 the bowel, or discharged with the feces. 
 
 Although a passage may sometimes be ef- 
 fected by such unnatural straining, its results, 
 both immediate and remote, are bad. The im- 
 mediate efTcct .includes the disarrangement of 
 the digestive processes, not only in the large 
 intestine, but in the small as well, and prob- 
 ably other abdominal organs, in the forcible 
 pushing into the blood and lymphatic circula- 
 tions of unsuitable substances, causing head- 
 aches and auto-intoxication, while the after 
 consequences are that the constipated habit is 
 more firmly fixed, the next stool almost cer- 
 tainly being dry and hard, and the natural 
 
92 MILK DIET. 
 
 mechanism of defecation more weakened and 
 less inclined to perform its duty. 
 
 Piles, or hemorrhoids, are probably always 
 caused by straining at stool, as. the pressure 
 prevents the venous blood returning to the 
 heart and it accumulates in the mucous mem- 
 brane of the rectum and distends it until tis- 
 sue gives way and a blood tumor, or pile, re- 
 sults. 
 
 The content's of the bowel act in different 
 ways to produce a normal stool. By irritating 
 the mucous membrane, nervous centers are ex- 
 cited which cause a reflex peristaltic move- 
 ment of the intestinal muscles, and by the se- 
 cretion, or production of osmotic conditions, 
 which cause fluid to flow into the cavity of 
 the intestine, until it becomes so watery that 
 it may be discharged. 
 
 Various laxative foods act directly, on the 
 arrival of their undigested portions at the rec- 
 tum, as the coarse fibers of cereal coverings, 
 small seeds of fruit, or indigestible skins of 
 tomatoes, prunes, etc., or they may act im- 
 mediately through the circulation, as it is not 
 uncommon for people to have to go to stool 
 within a short time after eating the first 
 peach, or pear of the season, or any fruit that 
 
CONSTIPATION. 93 
 
 is unusually well relished. And some people 
 say that eating any article which causes a cop- 
 ious flow of saliva will bring on a movement. 
 A small amount of laxative fruit usually acts 
 better than too large a quantity. Some doc- 
 tors advise the eating of just one fig at bed- 
 time, or one apple before breakfast, knowing 
 that eating a larger amount, or perhaps over- 
 eating, seems to have frequently the opposite 
 of a laxative effect. Overeating of any food or 
 foods is a prolific source of constipation. 
 
 While constipation is an unsanitary habit, 
 to say the least, it is nevertheless a fact that 
 many people who have it magnify the con- 
 dition and its dangers. There are many such 
 persons, whose one object in life seems to be 
 to have a daily movement, whether there is 
 anything to be moved or not, and they are in 
 misery unless they have it. And, after having 
 it, by force, if necessary, they are not happy, 
 because they immediately begin to plan for 
 Ihe next day. Everything they eat or drink 
 is judged by the test: Is it constipating, or 
 not? They stuff themselves with unsuitable 
 foods, because some one declares them laxa- 
 tive, and they decline really nutritious articles, 
 because they may have a reputation for cans- 
 
94 MILK DIET. 
 
 ing costiveness. Their drinks, also, have to 
 pass the same test, and healthful fluids are re- 
 jected, perhaps in favor of some foul smelling 
 and tasting mineral water, because the latter 
 moves their bowels, disregarding the fact that 
 these waters are often artificially impregnated 
 with salts by the manufacturers and may con- 
 tain many impurities. It is but a step from 
 them to out-and-out cathartic medicines, ami 
 then, usually, all chance of restoring the nor- 
 mal movements of the bowels is gone, except 
 by radical action. 
 
 A simple and good cure for many of these 
 cases, which I have often successfully applied, 
 where the people had common sense and will 
 power enough to carry it out, is to have them 
 eat, in moderation, everything they relish, 
 chewing it well, and instead of trying to have 
 a movement of the bowels, try hard not to 
 have one. Instead of yielding to the first faint 
 hint that the bowels might move, restrain it, 
 until the next day, or two or three days, if 
 necessary. Retain even the gas, if any is in- 
 clined to pass, and, my word for it, there will 
 come a time when an impulse will be felt . 
 about which there can be no mistake, and a 
 satisfactory evacuation will result, without 
 
CONSTIPATION. 95 
 
 straining or forcing into the circulation a lot 
 of stuff which does not belong there. Don't 
 try to force out every particle that you think 
 may be in the rectum, but keep some for next 
 time, so to speak, and the next time will also 
 be easy, and the next time after that, and all 
 the other times. This plan will not suit the 
 manufacturers of expensive machines in- 
 tended to wash all the food out of the colon, 
 by using large hot-water injections. They 
 may claim that you will get ptomaine poison- 
 ing, or auto-intoxication, but such things, in 
 my experience, have usually been caused by 
 bad food, imperfectly digested, forced out of 
 the colon into the body against the wishes of 
 the absorptive cells, which could not stand 
 the pressure put on them. 
 
 As to the use of injections, I will say here, 
 that occasions may arise when they are tem- 
 porarily of great use, but as a means of curing 
 constipation, it is irrational to distend the 
 bowel, already weakened and dilated, with 
 large enemas of warm, or hot water, and the 
 most difficult cases to cure are those where the 
 colon and rectum are paralyzed from long use 
 of such measures. 
 
 There would be very little constipation 
 
96 MILK DIET. 
 
 with any one, if the internal sphincter relaxed 
 readily. While it is contracted it acts very 
 much like- a valve or gate, opening inwardly, 
 and the more pressure we put on it the tighter 
 it is shut. 
 
 Just why it does not open, or relax, when 
 we wish it to, is a difficult question to answer. 
 It cannot be relaxed by simply willing it to as 
 we. would relax the muscles of the arm, for it 
 is not a voluntary muscle. Some people, who 
 are always on a nervous tension, put so much 
 extra force on the external sphincter all the 
 time that it gets in a state of continuous or 
 tonic contraction, and communicates its rig- 
 idity to the internal muscle sympathetically. 
 Such people may suddenly decide that it is 
 time to have a movement, and they relax the 
 outer muscle, and attempt, by pressure, to 
 overcome the resistance of the inner muscle. 
 But this is not the right way to go at it. 
 
 A better way is outlined above; simply 
 wait until the desire is irresistible; then the 
 inner sphincter is sure to be relaxed and the 
 peristaltic movement sufficient to move the 
 contents out without using abdominal pres- 
 sure. 
 
 Another, and perhaps, opposite method of 
 
CONSTIPATION. 97 
 
 securing the desired result is to obtain a gen- 
 eral relaxation of the body, which will second- 
 arily or sympathetically affect the involuntary 
 muscles. This is explained in another part, 
 under the title of Rest. 
 
 A method frequently advised is the use 
 of massage over the abdomen, by manipula- 
 tion with the hands, or rolling a cannon ball 
 over the location of the colon, or bringing the 
 abdomen forcibly against some object, as a 
 strap between two posts. All these are unnat- 
 ural procedures, and while possibly useful, 
 temporarily, in some cases, they never tend to 
 produce a cure, but instead, further weaken 
 the intestinal muscles by usurping their func- 
 tions. 
 
 As contrasted with passive exercise, active 
 exercise is far better. Exercise of any part of 
 the body makes deeper breathing necessary, 
 and that means more up and down action of 
 the diaphragm, which in turn produces more 
 movements of the abdominal contents. More 
 oxygen enters the blood, and more blood circu- 
 1,'iles through the vessels everywhere, stimu- 
 lating all the muscles. This induces warmth, 
 and perspiration, and when there is external 
 perspiration, there is usually a watery ex- 
 
98 MILK DIET. 
 
 cretion through the mucous membrane of the 
 intestines as well, for the inner lining of the 
 intestines is really outside of the body proper, 
 in the same way that the skin is. . 
 
 Not only does proper exercise bring into 
 use the external muscles of the abdomen, 
 whose action is readily apparent, but also im- 
 portant muscles lining the abdominal cavity, 
 connecting the backbone and pelvis and 
 thighs, the movements of which must have a 
 considerable influence on the abdominal vis- 
 cera. 
 
 There can be no question about the bene- 
 fits of exercise to the constipated, it is a neces- 
 sity. Movements particularly useful in these 
 cases will be explained under Exercise. Some, 
 directions in regard to diet will be given in the 
 chapter entitled After Treatment. 
 
 The reader will note that so far, in treating 
 of constipation, I am speaking of persons- in 
 ordinary circumstances, and not those on the 
 milk diet, or resting. 
 
 What does the milk diet do for people af- 
 flicted with constipation? It is the only per- 
 fect and natural cure that I know of. 
 
 On no other diet can the bowels be re- 
 
CONSTIPATION. 99 
 
 
 
 stored to their natural functions, while the pa- 
 tient remains in bed, resting. 
 
 On no other possible diet can any one build 
 up the entire muscular system of the body, 
 both voluntary and involuntary, while taking 
 complete rest. 
 
 On no other diet is it possible for one to 
 gain healthy flesh rapidly, without exercising, 
 or submitting to massage. 
 
 Most people find that drinking fresh milk 
 with other food increases the tendency to con- 
 stipation. Even when they attempt an exclu- 
 sive milk diet, using a few pints daily, the 
 trouble is increased. A few people of this 
 class say that milk acts as a laxative to them, 
 and the use of buttermilk, sour milk, and sour 
 milk cheese, tends to prevent constipation in 
 nearly every case. 
 
 It is impossible to use anything but fresh 
 milk in the milk cure, because that is the only 
 substance that the stomach can take contin- 
 uously, for unlimited periods, without tiring of 
 or rejecting. However, it is often useful to 
 give a glass or two of buttermilk, or some cot- 
 tage cheese (made without cooking) if the 
 bowels do not move naturally while taking 
 the full amount of milk. Sour milk that has 
 
100 ^ MILK DIET. 
 
 coagulated, called "clabber," or ''loppered 
 milk," may be beaten up with an egg-beater, 
 and makes a very good substitute for butter- 
 milk. 
 
 But the best of all ways of overcoming the 
 initial constipation on a milk diet is to take 
 more milk. In every case there is necessarily 
 a considerable portion of the milk undigested, 
 and the percentage of undigested matter in- 
 creases as we increase the amount taken. On 
 a generous milk diet regular stools occur 
 largely as a mechanical result at first; the ac- 
 cumulated feces are too great in amount 
 to be retained. This is often noticed where 
 patients are taking an amount of milk some- 
 what too small to cause daily movements. In- 
 creasing the amount one or two pints daily 
 generally has an immediate effect, changing 
 the discharge from dry, hard, round balls to 
 a soft, continuous cylinder, with more fre- 
 quent movements. It is possible that only a 
 small portion of the additional milk is di- 
 gested, although an increased rate of gain in 
 weight is always shown in such cases. 
 
 While it is true that certain parts of the 
 milk, as the fat and casein, or cheese, are 
 never entirely digested, there are other parts, 
 
CONSTIPATION. 101 
 
 as albumin, milk sugar, and mineral salts, that 
 are completely assimilated. The cells lining 
 the alimentary canal have a selective action; 
 they take out what is needed, and reject the 
 remainder, and, under the natural conditions 
 surrounding the milk cure, it is always better 
 to provide too much food than too little, in 
 order to he sure of getting enough of the ab- 
 solutely necessary materials. Where only one 
 kind of food is taken, it is a simple matter for 
 the digestive apparatus to select from it the 
 needed ingredients, and pass on the residue. 
 The dream of theorists that some day we may 
 he able to supply all the needs of the body by 
 means of a daily pill and a swallow of liquid, 
 and not have any undigested residue to both- 
 er with, will never come true. 
 
 P>efore starting the milk diet, constipated 
 persons should have at least 36 hours fast 
 from ordinary foods, but any ripe, fresh, or 
 dried fruits (except bananas) may be -eaten. 
 If ihe stomach is too weak to handle raw 
 fruits, they ma}- be cooked, without using 
 sugar. Several glasses of water, either hot or 
 cold, should be taken, but do not distend the 
 stomach with it too much, for water, taken in 
 unusual quantities, is almost as indigestible 
 
102 MILK DIET. 
 
 and uncomfortable as some foods are, to a 
 weak stomach. It is not absolutely necessary 
 to have fruit during the fast, and if patients 
 cannot find fruit that they can eat wih a relish, 
 they had better omit it. But where fruit is 
 eaten, it is frequently the case that, on be- 
 ginning' the milk diet, the bowels move spoil 
 taneously the first day. If the bowels do not 
 move the first day, let them go until the next 
 morning, unless positive discomfort is experi- 
 enced, and, if no indications of a movement on 
 the second day, an enema of warm water (at 
 the body temperature) may be taken. No 
 more water should be taken than is necessary 
 to accomplish the purpose, and, if even a small 
 passage is secured, do nothing more until the 
 next morning, unless the bowels move nat- 
 urally. Do not strain, or attempt to force a 
 movement. 
 
 The movement on the morning of the sec- 
 ond day of milk drinking will contain the un- 
 digested part of the fruit eaten just before 
 starting the milk, and perhaps the last part of 
 it will be tinged white or yellow by the milk. 
 The movement on the third morning may still 
 contain traces of the fruit, but will be mostly 
 a milk stool. 
 
CONSTIPATION. 103 
 
 If any trouble is experienced in passing 
 fcccs from the rectum, even with the aid of an 
 enema, it will be on this third morning, and 
 never after that. It is only a local trouble, 
 right at the outlet of the rectum, and copious 
 injections of warm water, with perhaps a little 
 soapsuds or castor oil, will overcome it, and it 
 will not recur, if the milk is kept going reg- 
 ularly. 
 
 It is best to secure an evacuation every- 
 day, if only a small one, and the warm water 
 enema will be all that is necessary to obtain 
 it. If the injection is needed for several days, 
 decrease the amount of water used every day, 
 until only about a teacupful is used. The rec- 
 tum will be getting more power all the time, 
 and probably the feces will become softer. 
 
 After about a week of using the warm 
 water injections without securing spontaneous 
 movements, it is a good plan to use a very 
 small injection of cold water, the colder the 
 better. Cold water acts as a stimulant to the 
 rectal muscles and causes a contraction which 
 brings on the movement. Usually two or 
 three trials with cold water will put the bow- 
 els in shape to have natural movements. 
 
 The color of the stools, after the bowels 
 
104 MILK DIET. 
 
 are clear of food previously eaten, is a chalky, 
 or grayish white, in nearly every case. A few 
 persons have soft stools, of a yellowish color, 
 right from the start. As the patient goes on 
 with the diet, more yellow color appears, and 
 the discharge is softer, and movements more 
 frequent two or three a day. A light orange 
 color usually indicates a good condition of the 
 bowels. 
 
 When normal evacuations are established, 
 there is never any return to a constipated con- 
 dition so long as the same conditions of rest, 
 milk, etc., are continued. When ordinary diet 
 and habits are resumed there is very seldom 
 any difficulty, because the regular habits es- 
 tablished while on the milk, and the increased 
 power of the peristaltic muscles, the improved 
 digestion, and increased circulation, all tend 
 to prevent a relapse. 
 
 There have been patients with obstinate 
 and long-continued constipation, who, for lack 
 of time, could not stick to the milk diet long 
 enough to entirely overcome their trouble, but 
 who found their movements entirely regular 
 on resuming ordinary diet. 
 
 Of all the constipated people who have 
 taken the treatment correctly, for at least four 
 weeks, at least 98 per cent, have been com- 
 pletely and permanently cured. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 CONSUMPTION. 
 
 The milk diet has, in my experience, been 
 used more by consumptives than any other 
 class of invalids. 
 
 This is partly due to the greater prevalence 
 of tuberculosis and partly to the fact that the 
 immediate gain in weight appeals to them. 
 
 All consumptives know that a decrease of 
 weight nearly always means an increase in the 
 disease; conversely, they believe increasing 
 weight indicates a gain in health. 
 
 Of far greater value than the mere increase 
 in weight is the improvement in the blood, 
 both in quantity and quality, and the changes 
 in the lungs it brings about. 
 
 In addition to the increased capacity of the 
 lungs previously spoken of, there are some 
 characteristic reactions which always occur in 
 pulmonary tuberculosis. 
 
 Many people contract consumption and are 
 completely cured simply because their vitality 
 is strong enough to overcome the germs. 
 
106 MILK DIET. 
 
 Just as soon as a consumptive has suffici- 
 ent blood to prevent the wasting of the tis- 
 sues, the loss of weight stops, and on a further 
 increase of the nutritive fluids, the healthy 
 ceh are so strengthened as to prevent any ex- 
 tension of the disease. Next follows in nat- 
 ural order the recovery of the affected cells, 
 or the development of new ones, and the elim- 
 ination or absorption of the germs. 
 
 Almost every case of tuberculosis with 
 consolidation of lung tissue, starting in on 
 the milk diet, has a coughing 1 crisis, generally 
 about the end of the first week. The cough 
 and expectoration greatly increase as the con- 
 solidated portions of the lung loosen up and 
 air enters the cells which have been filled up 
 with the products of the disease. 
 
 The cough is easy and the sputum comes 
 up from the lungs readily, while previously 
 the cough may have been hard and ineffective. 
 
 Most of the authorities on tuberculosis in- 
 clude among the first sign? of improvement a 
 decrease of the cough and expectoration. 
 
 This may be the case in a dry climate on an 
 ordinary diet, because the inflammatory pro- 
 ducts would be gradually absorbed and large- 
 
CONSUMPTION. 107 
 
 ly eliminated through other channels or per- 
 haps even made over and used in the system. 
 
 Probably this process also occurs to some 
 extent in this treatment but I have seen al- 
 most a quart of sputum come from a patient 
 in twenty-four hours at this time. 
 
 Later on, of course, the coughing and sput- 
 um decrease. 
 
 On physical examination at this stage the 
 air is heard entering the previously soljd por- 
 tions of the lungs and as the air cells become 
 cleared out, the breathing sounds become nor 
 mal. Tn cases where cavities have formed 
 from the breaking down of the consolidated 
 area, sounds are heard later on, indicating, the 
 hardening of the walls of the cavity and ces- 
 sation of the extension of the disease. 
 
 After another period of time the cavity 
 tuny decrease in size. I have observed cav- 
 ities as large as a sugar bowl become cleared 
 out and firm walls formed around them and* 
 years after have noticed a sinking in of the 
 chest walls and almost complete obliteration 
 of the cavities with normal lung tissue around 
 them. 
 
 Air is more important to a consumptive 
 than to any other invalid. In my opinion it 
 
108 MILK DIET. 
 
 does not matter what kind of air so long as it 
 is pure. 
 
 If the condition is serious you must stay in 
 the open air day and night. Keep out of 
 rooms, churches, theatres, cars or any crowd- 
 ed place. 
 
 Under ordinary hygienic treatment many 
 cases have been cured at high altitudes, others 
 in the Salton sink below sea level, others on 
 long sea voyages or on sea islands, others in 
 the dry air of Arizona and others in the moist 
 air of Cuba and Florida. 
 
 On a milk diet or not, a third stage con- 
 sumptive who has regained his health in a cer- 
 tain climate should stay there. 
 
 The lung tissue built up on a Colorado 
 mountain will not long stand the air of Xe-\v 
 York City. Many, many cases that come to 
 Arizona and get "cured," return to other 
 States to live, and after again losing health, 
 come .back to Arizona. 
 
 But the "cure" seldom works the second 
 time, never the third. 
 
 I say to you, pick out a place where you 
 are satisfied to live and when you regain your 
 health you can remain there and retain it. 
 
 One thing I wish to caution third stage 
 
CONSUMPTION. 109 
 
 consumptives about. There is only one pos- 
 sible clanger to anyone taking the milk cure 
 and that is the rupture of an artery or aneur- 
 ism from the increased blood pressure. 
 
 I heard of a patient who had an aneurism 
 or blood tumor caused by a wound of the 
 large artery of the thigh and on beginning a 
 milk diet the pressure of the blood ruptured 
 the aneurism causing a fatal hemorrhage be- 
 fore medical aid could be summoned. 
 
 The same danger would be present after a 
 major surgical operation, and is well under- 
 stood in hospitals, where such patients are 
 given very little fluid for some days after the 
 operation. 
 
 1 do not believe this clanger would be pres- 
 ent with an aneurism caused by disease of the 
 artery, because the new blood would rapidly 
 strengthen and restore the weakened walls. I 
 would not hesitate to apply the milk diet to 
 such a case, beginning it rather gradually and 
 should confidently expect a complete cure, but 
 such patients must have complete rest for sev- 
 eral weeks. 
 
 T can imagine a patient with a cavity in the 
 lung crossed by an artery, whose walls arc 
 
110 MILK DIET. 
 
 eroded and weak, which might break and 
 cause considerable loss of blood. 
 
 Out of several hundred lung cases I have 
 never heard of any serious hemorrhages, but 
 where cavities are suspected to exist, the be- 
 ginning of the diet should be gradual, com- 
 mencing with, say, three quarts and increas- 
 ing one glass daily until the regular amount is 
 reached about the third week. 
 
 There may be small hemorrhages from 
 capillary vessels which are extending into the 
 diseased tissues, where the circulation had 
 previously been absent, but they amount to 
 nothing. They soon close and the loss of 
 blood is not noticed where it is being made so 
 rapidly. 
 
 Bleeding from the mucous membrane of 
 the nose and throat may also occur where 
 there has been a catarrhal condition, but it 
 is always slight and never harmful. 
 
 Those living in high altitudes and subject 
 to hemorrhage should always begin milk 
 gradually 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 CATARRH AND ASTHMA 
 
 Catarrh is a very common disorder, affect- 
 ing the mucous membranes in various parts of 
 the body. It varies from a slight, transient, 
 "cold in the head," to chronic and serious con- 
 ditions of the nasal passages, throat, lungs, 
 stomach, intestines, etc. 
 
 At first one may be subject to the attacks 
 only at certain times of the year, following ex- 
 posure to unusual weather conditions, usually 
 after being over-heated, but afterward it may 
 be present, more or less, all the time. 
 
 The milk diet treatment seems to have a 
 direct and invariably beneficial effect on ca- 
 tarrhal conditions of any mucous membrane, 
 the very first result is a strengthening and 
 general building up of the softer tissues of the 
 body, those which are first influenced by a 
 richer blood supply, and the cells of which 
 these mucous membranes are composed, are 
 very quickly influenced. 
 
112 MILK DIET. 
 
 If no serious complications have set in, 
 there is no case of catarrh or hay fever that 
 cannot be permanently cured by a four weeks' 
 course of milk diet. 
 
 Some of the happiest cases I have had 
 were asthmatics, and I can state positively 
 that, if the disease has not progressed to the 
 stage where the air cells of the lungs have 
 broken down into emphysematous cavities, a 
 complete cure may be made. 
 
 At first, asthma is only a nervous disorder, 
 but after years of straining, and wheezing, and 
 "doping," most asthmatics develop emphy- 
 sema and bronchitis. As with other nervous 
 troubles, here, too, the milk diet is a specific. 
 But patients must throw away their medicine 
 bottles, inhalers, and smokers ,and depend en- 
 tirely on the milk, with complete rest, and 
 warm baths. The cure cannot take place as 
 long as applications of cocaine, or other 
 "deadeners" are made to the air passages. 
 The first thing to learn to do, after starting 
 the milk, is to relax the whole body, and lie 
 down flat in bed, and this point usually comes 
 even in some bad cases, within the first two or 
 three days. After that time the recovery goes 
 on without interruption. Do not discontinue 
 
CATARRH AND ASTHMA. 113 
 
 the rest part of the treatment too soon, but let 
 it bear some relation to the time the disease 
 has existed. As the patient gets stronger, the 
 lungs clearer, and the breathing regular, in- 
 crease the air in the room and remove some of 
 the covering from the bed. Harden them off 
 before getting up and beginning exercises. 
 Continue the milk for weeks, perhaps, after 
 getting up, if the case has been serious. It is 
 important, even more so than in other dis- 
 eases, to do the cure completely at the first 
 trial, and not stop, after a certain amount of 
 improvement is obtained, with the expectation 
 of finishing up some other time. 
 
 Asthma is easily curable previous to the 
 time that actual breaking down of lung tissue 
 takes place, and after that I know of nothing 
 that will give more relief than the milk -diet. 
 Old cases of asthma, with chronic bronchitis 
 and emphysema look, and I suppose they feel, 
 like the most miserable people in the world. 
 But there is always a great improvement on 
 the milk cure, especially if they break away 
 from their depressant medicines, a thing 
 they are very loathe to do. 
 
 I made no distinction between the different 
 forms of asthma, as usually classified: Cardiac, 
 
114 MILK DIET. 
 
 renal, peptic, thymic, nocturnal or various 
 forms of hay fever; the greatest possible bene- 
 fit for all of them is obtained on the milk diet. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 RHEUMATISM. 
 
 The milk diet treatment can be applied to 
 rheumatism, with the greatest confidence in 
 a successful outcome. I have never seen nor 
 heard of a return of any manifestation of 
 rheumatism in any one who had taken the 
 milk cure. It may well be asked: Why are 
 there so many suffering from rheumatism if 
 such a simple thing will cure them? There 
 are several answers to this question, but there 
 is no good reason. Many people with rheuma- 
 tism, gout, chronic bronchitis, and similar 
 diseases are fleshy, plethoric and over-weight, 
 and the milk diet does not appeal to them be- 
 cause, if correctly taken, it means an increase 
 in weight, at first, anyway. 
 
 Very many of them are gross eaters; some 
 hygienic writers go so far as to say that they 
 all are. Not many are willing to give up the 
 pleasures of the table for an exclusive milk 
 diet. 
 
116 MILK DIET. 
 
 A fast is often beneficial to this class, but 
 most of them will not listen to it. If they 
 fast for a time they commit such excesses 
 when they resume eating as to nullify all the 
 benefits. 
 
 Those who can afford it go from one hot 
 spring to another, drinking vile tasting and 
 smelling waters, taking mud baths and being 
 doctored by all kinds of quacks, with all sorts 
 of medicines. The resorts where a "good 
 table" is set appeal to them the most and hold 
 them the longest. Very few permanent cures 
 are performed in these places. 
 
 Some, like the Arkansas Hot Springs, often 
 greatly benefit invalids, but there the water 
 is quite pure, and the good results come from 
 the change to the pleasant mountain air, 
 drinking large quantities of water, taking a 
 daily warm bath, and experiencing a general 
 improvement of hygienic conditions. 
 
 I have seen fully as good results in Long 
 Beach, California, from a free use of the 
 soft, artesian water, together with a more 
 correct diet. 
 
 The milk cure does not meet with the ideas 
 of most rheumatic people because they must 
 take a fast to begin with, and next they must 
 
RHEUMATISM. 117 
 
 cut off their meat, eggs, tea, coffee, whiskey 
 and tobacco. 
 
 They cannot see the need of going to bed 
 for they think that would make them weak; 
 they would rather hobble around for years 
 like cripples than go to bed for a fortnight 
 and get well. 
 
 Many sufferers from rheumatism have 
 started in bravely on the milk diet, but have 
 stopped short when a natural reaction oc- 
 curred. In this disease, as in many others, 
 the first sign of a cure is a stirring up of the 
 old trouble, causing often a recurrence of the 
 rheumatic attacks. 
 
 It is very common, almost the rule, I 
 should say, for a case of chronic rheumatism, 
 starting on the milk diet properly, to have 
 a return of the old malady. . If the disease 
 has prevously taken the form of lumbago, 
 after a few days of the diet, some movement, 
 or muscular effort, will suddenly bring on a 
 typical attack of the pain and spasm. If the 
 patient keeps on with the milk the attack dis- 
 appears after a day or two, but within a few 
 days more a second attack may come on. but 
 always much lighter than the first. I have 
 
118 MILK DIET. 
 
 seen even a third attack, but so slight as to 
 cause no inconvenience. 
 
 If the patient goes through the first attack 
 without ceasing the regular taking of the milk, 
 any further appearance of the trouble will not 
 hinder a cure, because it will be evident from 
 the lighter form that the disease is being mas- 
 tered. The explanation of these "crises" may 
 be found in the fact that the circulation of the 
 blood is greatly stimulated while it is not yet 
 purified. The excess of fibrin, the uric or lac- 
 tic acid, or whatever the rheumatic poison 
 may be, is still in the blood and being driven 
 around with greater force, or into parts where 
 previously the circulation had been stagnant, 
 it is only natural that such reactions should 
 occur. These things are discouraging to peo- 
 ple who have been in the habit of taking med- 
 icine to relieve the attacks, and who have con- 
 sidered that medicine the best which most 
 completely and quickly stopped the pain and 
 discomfort. 
 
 It is the old story of something quick and 
 easy, some immediate effect, the suppression 
 of some symptom which is only the surface 
 indication of deeper trouble; present relief re- 
 gardless of future trouble. 
 
RHEUMATISM. 119 
 
 The process of eliminating the rheumatic 
 poison on a milk diet, if slow, is sure. Milk 
 does not contain the elements from which this 
 poison is made, and gradually, the new blood, 
 working within the body, assisted by the 
 baths keeping the external skin soft and por- 
 ous, drives rheumatism out of every tissue of 
 the body, and, best of all, there is a complete 
 correction of the abnormal process of assimi- 
 lation, digestion, or elimination which allows 
 this poison to accumulate in the blood. 
 
 It is a genuine cure, not simply temporary 
 relief. We do not know why certain people 
 should have rheumatism, when others, living 
 apparently in the same way, should be free 
 from it ; why one class of people is subject to 
 rheumatism, but never have tuberculosis, and 
 another class is liable to be consumptive, but 
 never rheumatic. Innumerable volumes have 
 been written on rheumatism, gout, Bright's . 
 disease, chronic bronchitis, asthma, etc., but to 
 my mind they are all different manifestations 
 of the same disease, and that disease is simply 
 the deranged condition of the assimilative or 
 eliminative organs which permits the poison 
 to accumulate in the blood. 
 
 Undoubtedly the class of food eaten has 
 
120 MILK DIET. 
 
 an important influence, for meat extract, meat 
 and fish always increase the amount of acid 
 in the blood, while a vegetarian diet always 
 decreases it. Tea, coffee, and cocoa also con- 
 tain the so-called purin bodies or bases, of 
 which group uric acid is a member. Milk is 
 absolutely free from these bodies. 
 
 Prof. Weir Mitchell says uric acid disap- 
 pears from the urine while skimmed milk 
 alone is being taken, but reappears on the 
 addition of other foods, especially meat. I do 
 not think skimming the cream from the milk 
 would make any difference. I am sure that my 
 rheumatic patients obtain freedom from uric 
 acid by the use of unskimmed milk. The 
 urine of these patients from being highly acid, 
 changes very quickly to the normal condition 
 of a very slight acidity, due to acid phos- 
 phates. The perspiration, however, continues 
 highly acid for 'several days, and sometimes 
 for weeks. The odor from a rheumatic pa- 
 tient on the milk diet is distinctive and un- 
 mistakable', but becomes gradually less as they 
 go on to a cure. Many other patients have 
 odors of more or less intensity emanating 
 from the skin, and none of them may be con- 
 sidered cured as long as this persists, no mat- 
 ter how well they may otherwise appear. 
 
RHEUMATISM. 121 
 
 There is no form of rheumatism, acute or 
 chronic, of the bones or muscles, so far as I 
 know, that cannot be successfully treated by 
 I IK- milk diet. But there are some cases with 
 obscure, deep-seated pains, probably in the 
 hones and worse at night, which are not rheu- 
 matism at all, and cannot be cured in as short 
 a period as rheumatism can. 
 
 T have treated several cases of rheumatoid 
 arthritis with bad ankylosed or stiffened 
 joints. The progress of the disease always 
 stops on the milk diet, and, to my surprise, 
 at least two patients recovered movement in 
 joints which I had thought permanently stiff, 
 1 ut the diet was continued for some months 
 in -both cases. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 VARIOUS DISEASES . 
 
 I am often asked if the milk diet is good 
 for this or that disease, or if it will suit certain 
 cases, as, for instance, where there is an aver- 
 sion to milk, or a dilated stomach, or where it 
 causes constipation or diarrhea, or if it is not 
 dangerous to use in heart, or kidney disease. 
 
 Anyone can take the milk diet, if he starts 
 right, and it is good for any chronic disease, 
 without exception. 
 
 I have never seen it used, in full amount, 
 for acute diseases like typhoid fever, nor 
 would it be practicable to give it during the 
 height of an attack of appendicitis, but I 
 have seen many cases where health was lost 
 through typhoid and restored on the milk diet, 
 and other patients subject to periodical at- 
 tacks of appendicitis, have remained in perfect 
 health after their course of milk diet. 
 
 It makes no difference whether a person 
 likes milk or not. One of my most satisfac- 
 tory cases was a lady who had not been able 
 
VARIOUS DISEASES. 123 
 
 to take any milk for over forty years. There 
 is no great difficulty in handling the proper 
 amount of milk if it is taken in the small 
 and frequent doses that I recommend, and 
 the patient kept at rest until the stomach and 
 bowels are working well. 
 
 Certain specialists say that a dilated 
 stomach is a bar to an exclusive milk diet. 
 This is a great mistake. A dilated stomach is 
 one of the easiest things to cure on the milk 
 diet. Probably if only a small quantity was 
 taken it might aggravate the trouble, but 
 where the proper amount, or anywhere near 
 it, is given, there is no difficulty in restoring 
 the tone, strength and proper size of a weak- 
 ened and dilated stomach. T think the stom- 
 ach is the first organ to be restored to a 
 
 * 
 
 healthy function, in nearly every case. 
 
 Chronic diarrhea can be cured on a milk 
 diet in a few days, if the patient can take 
 sufficient milk to raise the blood pressure and 
 heart pulsations. One lady with a long stand- 
 ing case of this trouble, took milk for four 
 weeks, with little apparent improvement, ex- 
 cept that her weight increased from 85 to 94 
 pounds. She had been weak and nervous, 
 largely, I think, as a result of a severe capital 
 
124 MILK DIET. 
 
 operation she had undergone at Battle Creek, 
 Michigan. She could only take about three 
 quarts daily, and this seemed to be too Hi tie- 
 to restore the proper circulation. But for- 
 tunately, when she resumed ordinary diet her 
 bowels operated in a perfectly normal man- 
 ner, and after nearly three years her health 
 continues good. A gentleman from Maine 
 who suffered from membranous colitis, which 
 had become so acute that he was losing 
 five pounds a week in weight, took the milk 
 diet carefully under my supervision, and at 
 the end of five weeks I discharged him per- 
 manently cured. 
 
 Regarding kidney disease, some doctors 
 without personal knowledge on the subject 
 have declared that such excessive quantities 
 of milk would ruin any kidney. In answer T 
 say that the amount is not excessive, but only 
 the natural amount required, and that the 
 kidneys do stand it, and grow healthier every 
 day. It is no hardship for any organ of the 
 body to exercise its natural function when it 
 is given the proper material to work upon. 
 The function of the kidney is to separate from 
 the blood and eliminate from the body certain 
 salts and waste materials, and raising the 
 
VARIOUS DISEASES 125 
 
 blood pressure and increasing the amount of 
 blood makes this function easier. The fact 
 that a much larger quantity of urine is passed 
 on the milk diet than usual only indicates that 
 the work of elimination is assisted by the 
 larger amount of water passing through the 
 kidney. 
 
 The urine of a healthy person is more or 
 less poisonous. It contains toxic materials 
 eliminated from the blood. In Bright's dis- 
 ease these poisons are reduced in quantity or 
 di sapper from the urine because the diseased 
 kidney is no longer capable of separating them 
 from the blood. The sweat glands are able to* 
 excrete a portion of this matter through the 
 perspiration, but sooner or later its retention 
 in the blood is apt to cause uremic convul- 
 sions. 
 
 As the urine is increased to three or four 
 times the usual amount by this treatment 
 either one or both of two things must happen 
 The waste and toxic matter is very much di- 
 luted by the additional water, or, a very much 
 larger amount of waste is excreted. 
 
 In the first case the elimination should be 
 easier by reason of the greater amount of fluid 
 
126 MILK DIET. 
 
 washing out the tubes ; in the second case the 
 blood is purified more rapidly. 
 
 The human kidney is never found in a per- 
 fect condition. Sections for microscopic study 
 in physiological laboratories are usually made 
 from the kidn.ey of some of the lower animals, 
 or possibly from that of a child. The adult 
 kidney always shows more or less patholog- 
 ical change in the delicate structure and com- 
 plicated arrangement of the uriniferous tub- 
 ules. 
 
 I have seen many very serious cases of al- 
 ^buminuria and Bright's disease take the milk 
 cure, during the last 27 years, and I have 
 never heard of any of them having any trou- 
 ble from the disease afterward. I believe 
 that diseased kidneys are restored to almost 
 perfect condition by the milk diet. 
 
 Regarding heart disease, meaning usually 
 organic or valvular disease, there is a general 
 impression that the less fluids given the better 
 it is for the patient. Schroth's method of an 
 almost entire dry diet was thought to be good 
 for heart disease; Oertel's method of dry 
 diet, with active exercise, helped many cases, 
 and Tuffnell's treatment of absolute rest 
 
VARIOUS DISEASES. 127 
 
 with a dry and very restricted diet has made 
 some remarkable cures. 
 
 I was, for many years, under the impres- 
 sion that the milk diet could not be given in 
 severe forms of heart disease, but I have so 
 completely changed my views, simply from 
 the result of observation, that I now feel sure 
 the milk diet can be given to any case, of 
 heart disease, with the greatest success pos- 
 sible to any treatment. Further than that, I 
 make the prediction that the future treatment 
 of severe forms of organic and functional, or 
 nervous heart disease, and aneurisms, will con- 
 sist almost entirely of the milk diet and rest. 
 
 A broken or ruptured valve may not be re- 
 stored by the milk diet, or 'any other treat- 
 ment, but it can be compensated for, so that 
 the possessor may live in comparative com- 
 fort. Almost any other form of heart dis- 
 ease can be successfully treated by means of 
 the milk diet. The simplest case of all is the 
 weak heart of an anemic person. Such people, 
 with poor circulation, white, pasty looking 
 skin, usually underweight, but sometimes fat 
 and flabby; weak and languid, disinclined to 
 exertion and easily tired, with typical heart 
 sounds the "anemic murmur," and a small, 
 
128 MILK DIET. 
 
 undeveloped heart, can obtain perfect health 
 on milk and rest. I have seen some of them 
 lose the murmur in two or three days, fol- 
 lowed by a steady growth of the heart in 
 size and strength, with a corresponding im- 
 provement in the general health. 
 
 Every doctor sees young people with the 
 disease, or condition, rather, called chlorosis, 
 or "the green sickness," which is often bene- 
 fited by the administration of iron, because 
 the blood of such people lacks the necessary 
 amount of iron. Milk always contains iron, 
 and a short course of the milk diet always 
 cures chlorosis, and puts the general system 
 in good order, a fact which is not always the 
 case after the administration of medicine. 
 
 Some of the more severe forms of heart 
 disease are complicated by dropsy of the feet 
 and ankles, and other parts. Although per- 
 haps of months' standing, this dropsy always 
 disappears in a few days on the milk and 
 rest. Rest alone often relieves these cases, but 
 rest without milk will not cure them. 
 
 Regarding dropsy, of any part of the body, 
 from whatever cause, I have never heard of 
 a failure of this treatment to cure it. 
 
 Any form of valvular diseas-e may be 
 
VARIOUS DISEASES. 129 
 
 treated by the milk diet, witb the greatest 
 possible advantage, but in these cases, more 
 than in any others that we are called on to 
 treat, rest, COMPLETE, ABSOLUTE 
 REST, is essential. 
 
 Two cases of valvular disease of the heart 
 have lost several pounds weight in the first 
 few days on a full milk diet, but afterwards 
 gained satisfactorily. I mention this fact 
 (which I cannot explain) because it is very 
 rare for any patients (except those having 
 obesity) to lose weight while on the milk. 
 
 I have stated elsewhere that the heart in- 
 creases in size, and this is true of every case, 
 except the dilated weak heart. It is not dif- 
 ficult to prove this, as any patient with a 
 weak heart can observe the apex beat of the 
 heart move downward and to the right as the 
 cure goes on. Growth of the heart follows 
 ihe law governing all muscles, that, if the 
 nutrition is kept up, increased work is fol- 
 lowed by increased size. The very first work 
 that the blood made on a milk diet has to 
 perform is to nourish the heart itself, for the 
 first arteries leading from the aorta, or main 
 artery of the heart, are the coronary arteries, 
 which turn back into the heart muscle to 
 supply it with blood. 
 
130 MILK DIET. 
 
 Right here I wish to speak of a very com- 
 mon, but serious, disorder, the treatment of 
 which by the milk diet is so successful that 
 the fact should be universally known. I re- 
 fer to hardening of the arteries, or ARTER- 
 IO-CLEROSIS, sometimes spoken of as a 
 physiological process. 
 
 "A man is only as old as his arteries," 
 refers to the fact that, while hard arteries are 
 a frequent accompaniment of old age, they 
 may also be present in a young, or middle- 
 aged man, who has lived improperly. 
 
 Hardening of the arteries is perhaps the 
 first apparent change in the blood vessels 
 that indicates beginning degeneration. It is 
 included by medical writers in the descrip- 
 tions of degenerations, and, while it is ad- 
 mitted that the condition may continue for 
 years before it becomes dangerous, it is gen- 
 erally considered the beginning of the end. 
 It is surprising to see how little hope is held 
 out to persons afflicted with this disease, by 
 writers on the subject, who seem to take it for 
 granted that there is no cure, nothing to do 
 but to make them as comfortable as possible, 
 "enjoin them to lead a quiet, well-regulated 
 life, avoiding excesses in food and drink." "It 
 
VARIOUS DISEASES. 131 
 
 is usually best to frankly explain the condi- 
 tions of affairs," etc. 
 
 After a certain time, the duration of which 
 varies in different cases, the inner lining of 
 these hardened arteries softens, ulcerates, and 
 breaks down, resulting in aneurism, embolism, 
 paralysis, and apoplexy. 
 
 I believe that almost every case of this dis- 
 order can be cured, if treatment is used before* 
 the ulcerative stage begins. One old gentle- 
 man whose pulse felt like a wire, took the 
 milk diet treatment three years ago, and in 
 less than four weeks his arteries were soft, 
 and the neuralgia of the heart, from which he 
 suffered intensely, disappeared. Neither the 
 sclerosis nor the heart trouble has ever re- 
 turned since that time. 
 
 One disease that is difficult to treat with a 
 milk diet is chronic inflammation of the blad- 
 der, especially the tubercular form. This is 
 usually considered incurable, and I know- 
 nothing better for it than this treatment, but 
 these old, inflamed bladders with thickened 
 walls and degenerated linings, have a very 
 small capacity, so that even on ordinary diets 
 urination must be performed very often. With 
 the amount of urine increased three or four 
 
132 MILK DIET. 
 
 times, and the diseased organ showing no im- 
 mediate improvement, it requires considerable 
 faith, or persistence, on the part of the patient 
 to carry on the treatment: The rubber urinals 
 sold by druggists are of material assistance, 
 and as the urine becomes "soft and unirritat- 
 ing, the bladder can hold more of it than while 
 the person is on an ordinary diet. Indeed, it 
 is a great relief to these people to have the 
 urine change from the fetid, irritating, am- 
 moniacal, decomposing stuff to the almost 
 colorless and odorless water characteristic of 
 the milk diet. 
 
 The milk diet has proved invaluable to 
 many young women with painful menstrua- 
 tion, misplaced, or undeveloped wombs, and 
 other disorders peculiar to the sex. Fibroid 
 tumors of the uterus have been known to dis- 
 appear under this treatment, and many other 
 conditions, apparently only suitable for opera- 
 tions, have been remedied. There is a great 
 development of the pelvic organs, while rest- 
 ing and taking the milk diet. 
 
 Usually the best time to start in with the 
 milk is right after a menstrual period. The 
 next period may be, and often is, irregular as 
 to time, but if three weeks elapse before it 
 
VARIOUS DISEASES. 133 
 
 comes on, it is almost always the case that 
 UK- pain will be greater than usual, and some 
 patients are inclined to stop the milk to get re- 
 lief. The pain is due to the unusual amount 
 of blood, in excess of the ordinary congestion 
 at this period. If a woman can stand the pain, 
 and keep the milk going, greatly improved 
 conditions will be noticed at the next menstru- 
 ation. 
 
 The relief experienced by these cases is 
 similar to that occurring after a normal child- 
 birth, when, as most married women are 
 aware, menstruation almost always "ceases to 
 be painful. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no part of the body that 
 receives greater and more uniform improve- 
 ment in this treatment than the generative or- 
 gans. Milk is the best nerve food that we 
 possess, and the connection between the ner 
 vons system and the sexual organs is a very 
 close one. The improvements in the two go 
 on coincidentally. 
 
 An exclusive milk diet has been in use for 
 patients with diabetes mellitus since 1863, 
 when ii was introduced by Donkin. Pro-f. 
 Tyson tells of one case taking fourteen pints 
 daily. He regards the diet as the most impor- 
 
134 MILK DIET. 
 
 tant part of the treatment of this ordinarily 
 fatal disease, and is confident that the exclu- 
 sive milk diet is the most effectual way of 
 treating it 
 
 I should feel certain of good results from 
 the milk diet treatment in diabetes, but I re- 
 gret that I have no cases to report, never hav- 
 ing succeeded in getting a suitable one for a 
 trial. 
 
 Since the above was written seveal diabet- 
 ics have attempted to take the milk diet, but 
 none have carried it on more than a week. 
 They all lost weight, but two gentlemen 
 seemed benefited by the short course. I still 
 believe the treatment would cure suitable 
 cases, not too far advanced. 
 
 I receive numerous inquiries regarding 
 cancer, but I can only repeat what I have just 
 said about diabetes, as I have the same lack of 
 experience with true cancer. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 PSYCHOLOGY OF THE MILK CURE. 
 
 I am glad to say there is no "suggestion," 
 or faith cure about the milk diet treatment. 
 You put something in, and you get something 
 in return for it every time. I have had pa- 
 tients who fook the treatment because friends 
 urged them to, but without the least faith in it, 
 except that they thought "milk wouldn't hurt 
 them," and these people have made as good a 
 cure as others who had perfect confidence in 
 the method. 
 
 All my patients will bear me out in the 
 statement that no -psychological influence has 
 been exerted. The milk diet treatment is a 
 simple thing, and within any person's reach. 
 It is not necessary to have grand buildings, 
 expensively furnished apartments, showy 
 balhroom.s, glittering apparatus, or compli- 
 cated appliances of any kind. What is needed 
 is a quiet, cool and airy place, with a comfort- 
 able bed and the necessary toilet utensils. A 
 
136 MILK DIET. 
 
 vase of fragrant flowers is always acceptable, 
 but showy ornaments or pictures, or lace cur- 
 tains, are out of place. 
 
 Nor is it necessary to have frequent exam- 
 inations of the body, of the urine, the blood, 
 or the secretions of the stomach, etc. After a 
 long sanitarium experience, and listening to 
 the histories of many people who had been 
 the rounds of the various institutions, I am 
 firmly of the opinion that these "examina- 
 tions," as usually conducted, are mainly bene- 
 ficial to the staff of young doctors who get the 
 fees, and incidentally, some experience. Of 
 what possible use is it for the patient to 
 learn one week that he has "hypoacidity," 
 and the next week that he has "hyperacidity," 
 if his dyspepsia is not relieved? 
 
 Such things may have their use in sanitar- 
 iums conducted with the idea of having the 
 patient stay as long as their money holds out, 
 but they are not needed in a place where the 
 treatment does what it is claimed .to do, and 
 patients are steadily improving. 
 
 The average person will get better results 
 in a well conducted sanitarium than he will at 
 home, not especially on account of more skill- 
 
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE MILK CURE. 137 
 
 ful treatment, but from causes that are well 
 understood by all physicians; 
 
 The change of air and scene, the makirfg 
 a regular business of the "cure," the re- 
 lief from home cares and worries, the getting 
 away from the well-meant but often harmful 
 solicitations of anxious relatives and friends, 
 often the exchange of a stuffy, over-furnished, 
 over-curtained, badly ventilated bedroom for 
 a more healthful one, all these, and many 
 other details, frequently assist in getting an 
 invalid started on the upgrade. But more 
 than all other things combined is the wonder- 
 ful influence of the new blood made so freely 
 on the milk. Rest and quiet, daily warm 
 baths, and plenty of fresh, pure air are neces- 
 sary to most people in order that they may 
 take and assimilate the proper amo.unt of milk, 
 and eliminate the waste products. 
 
 It is not necessary to have a daily "Health 
 lecture," during this treatment, but fre- 
 quently, at the start, a little encouragement is 
 helpful to keep the milk going down, because 
 the senses of hunger and thirst do not cry for 
 it, and it is easy to stop drinking for a while. 
 
 The best "cures," in my experience, have 
 been the patients who started in with the full 
 
138 MILK DIET. 
 
 amount of milk, and took it continuously, 
 without interruption other than during the 
 sleeping hours. They did not stop because 
 their stomachs seemed full or for a bad taste 
 in their mouth. Some of them have disregard- 
 ed nausea and even vomiting during the first 
 days of their treatment. Others have suffered 
 headaches and backaches, and, later on, the 
 dull, stretching pain in the stomach, kidneys 
 and liver, which may accompany the rapid 
 growth of those organs. Very many have had 
 returns of the old pains of rheumatism, neu- 
 ralgia, earache, toothache, pleurisy, peritonitis 
 and inflammatory conditions of the generative 
 organs, which they may have had years be- 
 fore. These pains usually last about a day, 
 but in chronic cases of long standing, where 
 there has been considerable growth of in- 
 flammatory tissue, and adhesions, as between 
 the serous surfaces of the peritoneum and 
 various organs of the abdomen and pelvis, the 
 duration of the pain is somewhat in propor- 
 tion to the length and seriousness of the dis- 
 ease. 
 
 The pain is never as severe as it was in 
 the original disease, except perhaps in some 
 women at the menstrual period, and the pain 
 
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE MILK CURE. 139 
 
 may be stopped by stopping the milk, and 
 thereby taking off some of the blood pressure, 
 but that is usually the wrong thing to do, for 
 it is the pressure of the excess of blood that 
 works the cure. 
 
 I do not ask the impossible of any person, 
 but I tell those who are inclined to stop the 
 milk tliat the pain is only a necessary reaction 
 in the diseased part; that pain means a growth 
 of new capillary bloodvessels in a place where 
 the circulation had been stagnant, that the 
 part, or organ is growing larger, getting 
 straightened out, coming back to the place 
 where it belongs, stretching its fibrous and 
 sensitive covering, (as in the liver and kid- 
 neys) pulling on the contracted ligaments, or 
 abnormal fibrous bands which have bound it 
 down and interfered with its action, or stim- 
 ulating the normal movement where it had 
 been paralyzed. 
 
 It is easier to understand why there should 
 be pain with a curative process than it is to 
 explain how there ever can be a cure without 
 pain. 
 
 When I have told patients what, to the 
 best of my knowledge and experience, is go- 
 ing on, I leave it to them to decide whether 
 
140 MILK DIET. 
 
 they can stand the pain, or discomfort, with 
 the expectation of a complete cure, or whether 
 they will have to stop the milk temporarily, 
 and perhaps stop the curative process when it 
 is at its height. 
 
 I encourage them by stating the fact, 
 which I cannot emphasize too strongly, and 
 which everyone should remember, that, in 27 
 years' experience with this treatment, on all 
 classes of patients, suffering from heart dis- 
 ease, brain and nerve disorders, blood clots, 
 paralysis, inflammation of the bowels, ulcera- 
 tive and hemorrhagic processes in various 
 parts of the body, chronic specific disease, or 
 chronic poisoning due to lead, mercury, ar- 
 senic, or any medicine, I have NEVER 
 HEARD OF ANY INJURY, OR BAD RE- 
 SULTS, from pushing the milk diet TO THE 
 UTMOST CAPACITY OF THE PA- 
 TIENT. 
 
 The one possible exception to this rule is 
 the case of a man who had a blood tumor, or 
 aneurism, resulting from a recent gunshot 
 wound, which burst 'from the pressure gen- 
 erated by a milk diet, with fatal results. 
 
 I do not know whether the man was rest- 
 ing, or how much milk he was taking, or any 
 
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE MILK CURE. 141 
 
 other particulars, but I would advise against 
 giving the full milk diet to any patient who 
 had recently been operated on, or who had a 
 ruptured artery from any cause, except chron- 
 ic disease. I am not afraid to give the milk 
 diet in any case of diseased bloodvessels, or in 
 aneurism caused by disease, for I believe the 
 blood carries its own cure for these conditions, 
 and the more of it the better, but COM- 
 PLETE REST MUST GO WITH IT. 
 
 It is not possible in this little book to fol- 
 low each case to the end. There is an infinite 
 variety. If you have learned the great natural 
 principles upon which the treatment is based 
 and follow the directions I have given, you 
 will be ready for any condition which may 
 arise. 
 
 Don't leave out some portion which you 
 think is unnecessary, nor add something to it 
 which has helped you under other circum- 
 stances. Try my way first. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 REST. 
 
 There are a number of reasons why com- 
 plete rest must be had, at least during the first 
 part of this treatment. One very practical 
 reason is the fact that many weak stomachs 
 cannot retain the milk unless the body is ly- 
 ing quietly and therefore more or less relaxed. 
 A stomach that has long been making an in- 
 sufficient supply of blood is in a rut, and is 
 disinclined to take more food, and thereby be 
 compelled to make more blood. Practical ex- 
 perience has shown that if the body, (and 
 stomach) is kept as motionless as possible, the 
 necessary amount of milk is much easier re- 
 tained in the stomach and digested. 
 
 The same principle holds good on a sea 
 voyage. All old travellers know that lying 
 down at full length in the berth until used to 
 the motion of the vessel often prevents sea- 
 sickness. 
 
 Another reason is that naturally, in all an- 
 
REST. 143 
 
 imals, digestion and assimilation go on better 
 while the animal is at rest, or asleep. 
 
 But the most important reason for resting 
 while taking the milk diet may be explained as 
 follows: The treatment is taken to correct 
 some function, or to develop some part of the 
 body; something is wrong, or lacking, or needs 
 rebuilding. In short, growth is necessary, 
 and growth is always a function of rest. We 
 may, by exercise, build up big muscles, but the 
 growth even of muscles, is performed between 
 the periods of activity, for work always uses 
 up energy and wears out cells. Continuous 
 work, without relaxation, would be impossible 
 for muscles or other tissues. The intervals of 
 rest between the periods of work enable the 
 blood to flow freely into the part and carry the 
 needed nourishment to replenish the cells ex- 
 hausted by the previous energy. Work may 
 be the stimulant which causes subsequent 
 growth, but in itself work is exhausting, de- 
 structive. Recovery and recuperation can 
 only occur during relaxation; we grow while 
 resting. 
 
 The body requires its night's rest after its 
 day's work, and for the same reason a body 
 weakened by a long period of strain, misuse, 
 
144 MILK DIET. 
 
 illness, must have a period of rest, in some 
 measure proportionate to the period of wear. 
 If, during this period of rest, there is an in- 
 creased supply of nutrition and blood, we have 
 the ideal conditions for rapid repair. With 
 the wear and tear and waste of the muscular 
 system stopped, the nervous energy which 
 usually directs it is saved, or diverted to more 
 useful purposes. The voluntary muscles are 
 useful as organs of locomotion, prehension, 
 etc., but they are not vital organs. Men have 
 lived- minus all four limbs. 
 
 In chronic illness it is the vital organs that 
 we have to deal with, those concerned with di- 
 gestion, nutrition, respiration, circulation, in- 
 nervation, and depuration. By putting at 
 complete rest as many of the muscles as may 
 be possible, we save a large amount of nour- 
 ishment and nerve force that would otherwise 
 be expended without any useful return. 
 
 Every unnecessary drain must be stopped 
 to allow the vital organs to rebuild and restore 
 themselves. The more complete the inactivity 
 of the external muscles, the brain and nervous 
 system, the sexual organs, the better the pros- 
 pect of restoring the normal function of the 
 
REST. 145 
 
 other organs provided plenty of blood is sup- 
 plied. 
 
 I deem it an unfortunate, but unavoidable 
 feature of the treatment that the organs of 
 generation almost immediately share in the 
 general improvement, because it is undesir- 
 able, at this time, to spare any of the blood 
 from the important work of reconstructing 
 the digestive apparatus, and the lungs, (if 
 there is a pulmonary disease,) and there are 
 too many men who cannot restrain themselves. 
 
 Some people are unhappy with a few dol- 
 lars in their pockets and won't be satisfied un- 
 til it is spent, instead of putting it in the bank 
 and accumulating a good working surplus. 
 I hope this simile will be understood and ap- 
 preciated by married folks, and others. 
 
 The success of the Weir Mitchell treat- 
 ment is largely due to the complete rest pre- 
 scribed for severe cases. For weeks these pa- 
 tients are not permitted to sit up, or sew, or 
 write, or read. They are even fed by a nurse, 
 and talking is prohibited. 
 
 Complete rest on an ordinary diet usually 
 means that massage will be required to move 
 the bowels, but on the milk diet this is un- 
 necessary. 
 
146 MILK DIET. 
 
 My patients usually are allowed to read if 
 there are no headaches, and the stomach is 
 taking the milk without difficulty. But the 
 reading should not be continuous. Read for 
 ten minutes between drinks, and then lay the 
 book or paper down for fifteen or twenty min- 
 utes. Reading helps to pass away the time, 
 and satisfies people who, without it, would 
 want to be doing something more harmful. 
 But read as little as possible, and never by 
 artificial light. 
 
 Talking is usually unnecessary and seldom 
 beneficial. 
 
 Don't think because you are lying abed for 
 weeks and keeping quiet that you will get 
 rusty. I never knew the rest part of the treat- 
 ment to do any damage; most of the patients 
 are inclined to get up too soon, rather than 
 stay abed too long. But they all store up en- 
 ergy while resting and the good effect is ap- 
 parent as soon as they return to ordinary life. 
 
 Many people with tired nerves and poor 
 stomachs cannot take a sufficient quantity of 
 milk to do much good without being com- 
 pletely relaxed. But this state of relaxation 
 is a hard one for some people to get into. 
 They don't want to go to bed, and when they 
 
REST. 147 
 
 do, they stack up pillows behind their backs, 
 until they are almost in a sitting position. 
 
 They are losing half the benefits of the 
 treatment, and the opportunity of a lifetime to 
 take a complete rest. Isn't it worth while to 
 really rest for a few weeks if comparative 
 comfort can thereby be secured for all the re- 
 maining years of life? 
 
 To enable these folks to let go a little, to 
 reduce the tension, the warm bath is of great 
 use. In the warm bath only, do some of them 
 first learn to relax. It is sufficient for some 
 people, to tell them to lie out flat in bed, 
 breathe deeply a few times, and then, be- 
 ginning with the head and neck, relax all the 
 muscles of the body, so that if the various 
 parts were lifted they would fall like logs of 
 wood. When all the muscles are relaxed there 
 is a pleasant sensation, almost like floating in 
 the air. Sleep secured after getting in this 
 state is far more restful than where one sim- 
 ply drops off from fatigue, with all the weight 
 of the day's work .and cares distorting the 
 body. 
 
 But many cannot properly relax at first. 
 Here comes in the benefit of the warm bath. 
 It is not "weakening" for these strained, nerv- 
 
148 MILK DIET. 
 
 ous cases, any more than sleep is, but it docs 
 permit them to relax. Nothing supports the 
 whole body so gently and easily as a good tub 
 bath. I notice the insane asylums have 
 grasped the idea, and many of them are fitting 
 up bathrooms where very nervous cases may 
 remain continuously in the neutral bath for 
 weeks at a time, eating and sleeping therein 
 until the nervous system lias recovered. 
 
 The relaxing and soothing effect of the 
 warm bath is due to several causes. It is suf- 
 ficient to mention here the warmth, which re- 
 lieves the body of its heat generating func- 
 tion; the moistu're, which is absorbed ex- 
 ternally and inhaled internally; the cleansing 
 and opening of the pores of the skin; the soft- 
 ening and removal of the dead epithelial scales; 
 the growth of new capillaries; the relief of pain 
 and soreness and the wonderful buoyancy 
 caused by the equalization of the pressure on 
 the surface of the body. No cabinet, or vapor 
 bath, or electric light bath can do what the 
 warm tub bath does in combination with the 
 milk diet. 
 
 When the patient has learned how to relax 
 the body, and really rest, I have little doubt as 
 to the final result of the treatment. 
 
REST. 149 
 
 To illustrate the great difference in taking 
 the milk diet, with and without rest. I ob- 
 tained permission to quote the following case : 
 
 Mr. Aubrey Parks of Omaha, Nebraska, 
 was attacked by acute nephritis, or B right's 
 disease, about three years ago. It ran on for 
 several months and finally became chronic, 
 with a great deal of dropsy, in spite of treat- 
 ment in two hospitals and by several good 
 physicians. He finally went to a sanatorium 
 in Michigan where the treatment consisted of 
 n long fast, followed by an exclusive milk diet, 
 a glass at a time, at frequent intervals, as I 
 recommend. But, instead of resting, he was 
 ordered -to exercise daily, and went to the 
 milk room every half hour for his milk. 
 
 The result was that while his dropsy and 
 albuminuria decreased somewhat on the fast, 
 both increased markedly as soon as he started 
 the milk diet. He was ordered to take another 
 fast of about two weeks and then again took 
 the milk diet, with no better results than be- 
 fore. 
 
 Shortly afterward he wrote me about his 
 case, without informing me, however, that he 
 was not resting while drinking milk. I re- 
 plied that I could not understand it, as I had. 
 
150 MILK DIET. 
 
 never had a case of dropsy that was not cured 
 on the milk diet. Mr. Parks finally made the 
 long trip to California to take the treatment in 
 the manner I recommend. 
 
 On his arrival here September 1st, 1909, he 
 showed a condition of general anasarca, or 
 dropsy, literally all over the body. He could 
 not wear any of his regular clothing, hat, or 
 shoes, on account of the swollen, water-logged 
 condition of his skin. His weight was \&6 l / 2 
 stripped, although he had been fasting several 
 days during his journey. By- my direction, 
 Mr. Parks went to bed and remained there 
 over a month, except for the time he spent 
 daily in a warm water bath. 
 
 He took from six to seven quarts of milk 
 in twenty-four hours, and passed some days 
 over ten quarts of urine. In fifteen days his 
 weight had gone down to 127 a loss of al- 
 most 60 pounds. 
 
 From that time he slowly gained weight, 
 up to 154 pounds of solid flesh, although the 
 dropsy did not entirely disappear for several 
 weeks, the ankles being the last to become 
 normal. The albumin in the urine persisted 
 for nearly the two months he was under my 
 care, but finally disappeared. Mr. Parks, six- 
 
REST. 151 
 
 teen months after this treatment, is living in 
 Long Beach and is quite well. 
 
 No case that I remember shows so em- 
 phatically as this one does, the great benefit of 
 rest while on the milk diet. 
 
 Another case almost as instructive is that 
 of Mr. S. of Iowa, who being attacked by a 
 slight stroke of apoplexy, went to the same 
 sanatorium in Michigan of which Mr. Parks 
 had been an inmate. Mr. S. knew that his art 
 cries were in a diseased condition and this 
 condition had no doubt caused the ruptured 
 artery in the brain. 
 
 He took the usual fast for about two weeks 
 and then started in drinking milk, exercising 
 vigorously every day, according to the system 
 in vogue there. In less than forty-eight hours 
 he suffered a second stroke which paralyzed 
 his right arm and affected his speech, a re- 
 sult I should have expected under the circum- 
 stances, as the fast could in no way have 
 strengthened his blood vessels to withstand 
 the blood pressure consequent to exercise on 
 a milk diet. 
 
 This man came to me as soon as he was 
 able to travel, in January, 1909, and after a 
 short fast he went to bed and took five and a 
 
152 MILK DIET. 
 
 half quarts of milk daily for four weeks. I 
 never had the slightest fear of another hem- 
 orrhage, because he was not making any ex- 
 ertion that could be avoided. 
 
 After four weeks of rest and milk diet, I 
 felt confident his arteries were in condition to 
 stand exercise and gradually he began walk- 
 ing and using his arms. In less than a week, 
 he could walk over two miles at a time, 
 and soon after returned to his home. He 
 wrote a few months afterward that he was re- 
 suming his occupation as a traveling^ sales- 
 man, and felt well. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 EXERCISE. 
 
 A course of milk diet alone does not insure 
 a person forever against future illness or the 
 encroachment of old age, but it certainly tends 
 to do so when combined with right living, and 
 by right living I mean correct eating, drink 
 ini-;. working, thinking, sleeping, breathing 
 rind exercising. Of all these, the last is by no 
 means the least ; for many people it is the most 
 important of all. 
 
 There are many useful hooks and periodi- 
 cals devoted to exercise and physical culture, 
 and I advise all my patients to keep up their 
 interest in the subject by studying them, for 
 it is easy to drop back into the old habits 
 of inactivity and weakness. I cannot fully 
 cover the subject in this work but there are 
 some points that I will speak of, not always 
 mentioned in exercise instructions. 
 
 THE OBJECT of all exercise should be 
 to improve the circulation of the blood, in- 
 
154 MILK DIET. 
 
 crease the breathing power, and develop or- 
 ganic vigor in those vital parts of the body on 
 which our wellbeing depends. 
 
 Exercise simply to build up big muscles 
 and to do imposing feats of strength is largely 
 a waste of vitality. 
 
 In exercising any muscle, we also exercise 
 the brain and nerves, because they control the 
 muscles, and when we get tired, it is because 
 the nervous apparatus is tired, not the muscle 
 itself. 
 
 When we decide to make a muscular move- 
 ment, the brain sends an impulse over the 
 nerve or nerves extending to the special mus- 
 cles involved, ordering the muscles to con- 
 tract. As a muscle in contracting uses up a 
 certain amount of food carried by the blood, 
 the artery supplying blood to the particular 
 set of muscles in use becomes enlarged or di- 
 lated in order that the necessary food and ox- 
 ygen may reach the part. This itself is a mus- 
 cular act, the little involuntary muscles in the 
 walls of the artery being controlled by the 
 sympathetic system of nerves. After the 
 muscle has been working, the vein leading 
 from it to the heart carries a larger volume of 
 blood containing the waste matter created by 
 
EXERCISE. 155 
 
 the muscular effort. The brain itself requires 
 more blood when engaged in manipulating the 
 muscles, just as it does when engaged in any 
 purely mental process, for tissue cells in any 
 part of the body cannot be active without nec- 
 essitating a supply of blood in excess of the 
 amount ordinarily sufficient to nourish the 
 part. 
 
 So in muscular exercise there must be also 
 nervous exercise. Just as the muscle grows 
 larger, stronger, and firmer by exercise, so the 
 brain and nerve cells become more efficient in 
 the way of rapidity, acuteness, and precision 
 'in the execution of the movements. And mus- 
 cular effort, by throwing into activity a dif- 
 ferent portion of the cerebrum, and causing a 
 greater flow of blood in perhaps little used 
 channels, may relieve conditions like worry, 
 anxiety, insomnia, nervous exhaustion, and 
 even pain. 
 
 The most important effect of muscular ex- 
 ercise is to increase the number and depth of 
 respirations, and thereby the quantity of air 
 passing in and out of the lungs, leading to an 
 increased absorption of oxygen, and elimina- 
 tion of carbonic acid. It is estimated that a 
 man at rest draws in 480 cubic inches of air 
 
156 MILK DIET. 
 
 per minute; if he walks four miles an hour, he 
 draws fn five times as much, or 2400 cubic 
 inches; if he walks six miles an hour, he draws 
 in seven times as much, or 3360 inches. 
 
 The effect of exercise on the skin is to di- 
 late the cutaneous blood vessels, and increase 
 the amount of perspiration, thereby allowing 
 more water, salts, and acids to pass from the 
 system. The evaporation reduces the tem- 
 perature of the body, which would tend to 
 rise. 
 
 Exercise increases the appetite, doubtless 
 as the result of wear and tear of the muscles 
 and other organs. Digestion is more perfectly 
 performed, and the circulation through the 
 liver and portal system is quickened. There 
 are many different systems of exercise and 
 probably they all have good points, but what- 
 ever system is used, especially where no ap- 
 paratus is required, it must be kept in -mind 
 that to be of any benefit real exercise must be 
 taken. That is, the muscles must be firmly 
 contracted, and the brain kept occupied with 
 the matter in hand. It will be of little use to 
 flop the hands back and forth in a languid 
 manner, while the eyes are gazing out of the 
 
EXERCISE. 157 
 
 window, and the brain making plans for the 
 day's work, or something else. 
 
 Throw energy and concentration into the 
 movements ; they need not necessarily be 
 made rapidly, although rapidity is a factor in 
 some exercises, but contract the muscles to 
 the utmost limit. The alternate contraction 
 and relaxation of the muscles is what drives 
 the old bload out and pulls in new, and the 
 greater the concentration the more efficient 
 the movement. Make the limb or portion of 
 the body being exercised as rigid as possible. 
 In the arm movements, especially the over- 
 head ones (and these are particularly useful 
 because bringing into play muscles that are 
 otherwise little used) leave the hands open so 
 that the muscles of the forearm will not be 
 much affected. These movements should be 
 concentrated in the upper arm, shoulder, neck, 
 chest and upper back. Taken in this manner, 
 they are of the utmost benefit to the chest, 
 neck and spine. A few moments' exercise of 
 I he arms, in this manner stimulates the cir- 
 culation in the great blood vessels in the neck, 
 and along the spinal column into the brain, 
 and particularly brings into activity the great 
 nerve centers which lie along this tract. 
 
158 MILK DIET. 
 
 After patients have finished the resting 
 part of the treatment, they dress and sit up an 
 hour or two the first day. This is usually 
 enough where patients have heen in bed sev- 
 eral weeks, because the muscles, although big 
 and firm, are unused to exercise, and they tire 
 easily the first day. 
 
 As soon as patients begin to be up and 
 around, the length of the bath is decreased a 
 little every day, until only a short, 10 or 15 
 minute, bath is taken. Instead of finishing up 
 with the water quite warm, no more hot water 
 is added, and, when the short bath is reached, 
 a cold sponge bath, or shower, can be used 
 after the warm bath. 
 
 The second day the patient is up, a short 
 walk can be taken, and every day afterward 
 the exercises are increased, and the time in 
 bed decreased, until only the necessary time 
 for sleeping is spent in bed. 
 
 Two or three days after stopping the com- 
 plete rest, start in on the following exercises 
 and take them every morning and night. 
 They should be done standing in front of a 
 mirror, with very little or no clothing on. 
 The exercises are simple, and few in number, 
 so as to be easily remembered, and not take 
 
EXERCISE. 159 
 
 too long in execution. It is better to do a few 
 exercises twice a day regularly at home ,than 
 to go to a gymnasium two or three times a 
 week and work hard for an hour or two. 
 
 All these exercises can be made as hard as 
 -desired by simply increasing the tension, or 
 rigidity of the muscles. 
 
 EXERCISE NO. 1. Stand upright be- 
 fore^the mirror, arms down, palms facing for- 
 ward. Breathe deeply and regularly. Make 
 the muscles of arms and shoulders as rigid as 
 possible. Flex the arms at the elbows alter- 
 nately and bring the hand up in front of 
 shoulder. As one hand comes up the other 
 goes down. After doing each up and down 
 movement relax completely all the muscles of 
 that side. Do the movements slowly, starting 
 with five for each arm and increasing one a 
 day until ten is reached. 
 
 EXERCISE NO. 2. Stand upright, arms 
 extended sideways as far out as possible, 
 palms up. Make as rigid as possible all the 
 muscles of arms, shoulders and neck. Bend 
 both arms at the elbows, until hands are near 
 face, then extend to starting position and re- 
 lax. Do this the same number of times as Ex. 
 No. 1. 
 
160 MILK DIET. 
 
 EXERCISE NO. 3. Stand upright, arms 
 extended sideways as far as possible, palms 
 facing forward. Make rigid muscles of arms, 
 shoulders, back and neck. Bring hands for- 
 ward until almost touching in front of face, 
 and while doing so exhale, or empty the lungs 
 as completely as possible. Then return hands 
 to starting position slowly, inhaling as you do 
 so until lungs are completely filled. Then re- 
 lax. Always inhale through nose with mouth 
 closed. Repeat same number of times as Ex. 
 No. 1. 
 
 EXERCISE NO. 4. Stand upright, arms 
 at sides, palms inward. Make rigid muscles 
 of arms, shoulders, back, sides and abdomen. 
 Bend body at waist line sideways to left side 
 as far as possible. At the same time bend 
 right elbow and bring hand up into armpit, 
 closing fingers. Relax momentarily and 
 straighten up. Repeat to other side. To be 
 done five times. 
 
 EXERCISE NO. 5. Stand upright, arms 
 extended sideways, palms up. Make arms 
 and neck as rigid as possible, and raise hands 
 straight over head, without bending elbows. 
 Return to starting position and relax. Repeat 
 same number of times as Ex. No. 1. 
 
EXERCISE. 161 
 
 EXERCISE NO. 6. Stand upright and 
 raise arms sideways until hands are above 
 head. Then bend over forward until finger 
 tips touch floor as far as possible from feet. 
 Gradually straighten up, raising hands with 
 palms facing toward body. As you assume 
 perpendicular, rotate hands outward until 
 palms are facing forward. 
 
 This like No. 3, should be made a breath- 
 ing exercise, exhaling as the body is bent for- 
 ward, beginning to inhale as body comes up, 
 and expanding chest as much as possible at 
 the moment you rotate hands out. When the 
 expansion is as complete as possible, hold the 
 breath as you raise arms sideways as far as 
 possible, and commence exhaling as body 
 bends over, etc. To be done slowly five times, 
 allowing 8 to 10 seconds to each complete 
 movement. 
 
 I have given principally arm exercises, 'be- 
 cause it is the upper part of the body that 
 stands in greatest need of development, and 
 these movements markedly help the breath- 
 ing, and also are beneficial to the brain, and 
 nervous system in general. 
 
 The body bending exercises are particular- 
 ly useful in constipation, but should be done 
 
162 MILK DIET. 
 
 by everyone. All these movements assist in 
 maintaining the poise of the body, and tend to 
 gracefulness and agility in men or women ; old 
 or young. 
 
 The man of 45 would be in greater demand 
 by employers if he would keep up his strength 
 and quickness, and brush the cobwebs out of 
 his brain by vigorous daily exercise. He who 
 is slow of speech and movement and unwilling 
 or unable to stand an occasional "rush" in his 
 work, will likely be superseded by a more 
 alert and active employee. 
 
 Age is no drawback, but inefficiency is. 
 
 For the lower limbs, walking is good exer- 
 cise, when properly done, with the head up, 
 the chest expanded, and the limbs swung vig- 
 orously and not dragged along. Running is 
 still better and helps immensely to improve 
 the lung capacity. If outdoor running can- 
 not be practiced, a good substitute may be 
 found in the room by dressing in a light cos- 
 tume, or none at all, and going through the 
 motions of running, but dropping the feet in 
 the same place all the time. Rope skipping is 
 another strenuous exercise that can be prac- 
 ticed in a room. 
 
 Handball is excellent, but if you have no 
 
EXERCISE. 163 
 
 court get a light, hollow rubber ball which 
 you can throw up in the corner of your room, 
 near the ceiling. It is perfectly noiseless, 
 often a valuable consideration, and the return 
 direction is so variable that it keeps every 
 muscle on the jump to catch it. 
 
 Every year I am more convinced of the 
 benefits of exercise after taking the milk diet 
 treatment. The patients who remain in the 
 best condition are those who systematically 
 exercise. , 
 
 A simple test that can be made by any one 
 is to perform, night and morning, the tensing 
 exercises as given in this book for, say, ten 
 days, noting carefully the general condition 
 every day, as to strength, activity, appetite, 
 bowel movements, mental condition, etc., and 
 then stop them entirely. 
 
 After another ten days, resume the exer- 
 cises, and I am sure, on comparing your con- 
 dition, with and without exercise, that you 
 will decide in favor of keeping up the exer- 
 cises. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 AFTER TREATMENT. 
 
 Almost all patients who have taken the 
 milk diet under my personal direction, have 
 asked me what they should eat afterward; 
 how they can be sure of holding the benefits 
 gained on milk. 
 
 The permanent results of this treatment 
 are invaluable, and I believe better than those 
 obtained by any other method, and permanent 
 cures are what is wanted in every case, and 
 not simply temporary improvement while tak- 
 ing the treatment. 
 
 While there is a great apparent improve- 
 ment in all patients taking the diet, yet it is a 
 fact that many of them often have to wait un- 
 til ordinary habits and diet are resumed be- 
 fore they realize the full benefit gained. 
 
 All persons taking the milk cure properly 
 will find their physical condition better, per- 
 haps, than it ever was before. The circulation 
 is active, digestion perfect, and all the func- 
 
AFTER TREATMENT. 165 
 
 lions of the body working well. There is no 
 
 good reason why these satisfactory conditions 
 should not be retained. on a return to ordinary 
 life. 
 
 It is impossible to give one set of rules that 
 will fit every ease, on account of variations in 
 the individual, such as age, habits, condition 
 of teeth, financial circumstances, location, pre- 
 vious disease, etc., but I can give here certain 
 general directions which will no doubt be 
 helpful, comprising as they do the observation 
 of this class of patients for twenty-seven 
 years; 
 
 Most people have some idea of what 
 caused I heir previous lapse from health, and 
 they should avoid the former errors. 
 
 ( hie very common source of ill health is 
 improper breathing, and breathing impure air, 
 day or night. This condition must not be re- 
 turned to. 
 
 Another very important thing to avoid is 
 heavy clothing. No matter how good the cir- 
 culation, or how perfect the regulation of the 
 body heat, if thick, heavy, tight fitting under- 
 garments are resumed, there is little chance 
 that the natural animal heat will continue to 
 be generated as freely as before. The warm 
 
166 MILK DIET. 
 
 clothing obviates the necessity of producing 
 heat within the body, and the oxidation of the 
 blood becomes less perfect because it is not 
 necessary to use, or burn so much oxygen. 
 The stomach does not make as much blood, 
 therefore cannot digest as much food. The 
 food, if not digested, becomes a tax on the 
 system, the appetite is interfered with, and the 
 general vitality lowered. 
 
 On the other hand, with light clothing, and 
 open mesh underwear, the circulation in the 
 skin will be more active and assist in retaining 
 the body heat; oxidation and metabolism in 
 the body will be promoted; a larger amount of 
 food assimilated, and more air respired. 
 
 People will put on clothing, and more of 
 it, every time there is the slightest suspicion 
 of being cold, or even if the skin becomes cool ; 
 not appreciating the fact that cold is one of 
 the best stimulants we have for the circulation 
 in the skin. And, while quick to add clothing, 
 they are slow to quit it, and when the weather 
 warms up again they have not only missed the 
 stimulus of the cold air, but now are enervated 
 by the superfluous heat of their garments. 
 
 Wear light garments and keep the skin in 
 a state of activity. Make your own heat by 
 
AFTER TREATMENT. 167 
 
 taking in plenty of oxygen and food and using 
 it as nature intended. If you have to move a 
 little quicker, or breathe a little deeper, to get 
 the necessary oxidation and animal heat, all 
 the better. Your muscles will work better, 
 and even your brain will be more active, if 
 your vital processes are not smothered under 
 heavy clothing. 
 
 Notice a man with cold hands, or feet, 
 and see if his limbs are not swathed with gar- 
 ments three or four layers deep. How can 
 you expect sufficient bloo'd to get down to the 
 extremities if it has to go through several feet 
 of flesh that is already too warm? 
 
 If the man with cold hands, instead of 
 wearing close, heavy, undergarments, with 
 tightly knitted wristbands, will wear sleeve- 
 less undershirts, his hands will be warm as 
 soon as the system is accustomed to the 
 change, and his general health better. 
 
 Keep the skin active by frequent baths. 
 Friction baths, using a dry, coarse towel, or a 
 brush, are excellent, and can be taken every 
 morning. A warm water bath is necessary 
 once or twice a week, and a daily sponge bath, 
 or rubdown of all the body usually covered by 
 clothing, helps to keep the skin in order. 
 
168 MILK DIET. 
 
 An important aid to health in many cases 
 is a correctly fitted pair of glasses or spec- 
 tacles. It is wise to have the eyes tested 
 after taking this treatment, because the eyes 
 undergo changes as well as everything else, 
 and glasses that were used previously may 
 cause eye strain afterward on account of be- 
 ing too strong. 
 
 A plentiful supply of water must be taken 
 daily, and the time to begin the water drink- 
 ing is right after you stop drinking milk. 
 Take a glass the first thing in the morning, 
 and the last thing at night, and two or three 
 drinks between meals. It is best not to drink 
 any fluid with the meals as it tends to wash 
 the food down before thoroughly masticated, 
 and also stops the secretion of saliva, and 
 stops the starch-digesting action of that al- 
 ready secreted. 
 
 If there is any tendency to constipation the 
 water drinking will generally prevent it, and 
 especially, if a. little fruit juice is added to the 
 water. Lemonade is a good drink, but the 
 "bracers" dispensed at the soda water foun 
 tains should be avoided. Ice .cold drinks of 
 any kind are a poor thing to put in the stom 
 
AFTER TREATMENT. 169 
 
 ach, and equally detrimental are the very hot 
 drinks that many people take. 
 
 When it comes to the question of food I 
 am inclined to be rather liberal in my views, 
 and do not lay down hard and fast rules, ex- 
 cept, perhaps, for the former rheumatic pa- 
 tients, where I advise against a resumption of 
 meat eating on general principles. But some 
 of them are eating meat occasionally, and 
 none of them have had rheumatism since tak 
 ing the treatment. 
 
 Many of the patients are vegetarians, but 
 .some of them believed in that before taking 
 the treatment, and still lacked health. 
 
 Of late years the patients who have been 
 using a diet of mostly natural, or raw foods, 
 have all kept in good health, and I have come 
 to believe more and more in this kind of a diet. 
 
 With milk and eggs, cream and cheese, 
 nuts, fruits and vegetables, bread made from 
 whole wheat, rye, oats or corn, and butter, 
 anyone should be able to select a bill of fare. 
 
 Cabbage, beets, turnips, carrots, radishes, 
 spinach, green corn, onions, chives, tomatoes, 
 celery, lettuce, and cress are all more digest- 
 ible raw than when cooked, and have a better 
 
170 MILK DIET. 
 
 flavor. Combinations of these vegetables 
 ground up in a chopper, together with sweet 
 potatoes, or nuts, or fruits with various kinds 
 of dressings composed of olives and olive oil, 
 lemon juice, yolk of eggs, cream or milk, make 
 perfect food dishes, taste good, and are easily 
 digested. 
 
 Raw eggs can be taken in several ways, as 
 broken into fruit juice, and swallowed with 
 out breaking the yolk, or beaten up with a 
 little seasoning, or as egg lemonade, or stirred 
 up with hot milk, or just placed in hot water 
 a few moments to warm it through, and then 
 eaten as a boiled egg would be. Raw eggs are' 
 undoubtedly more easily digested and assim- 
 ilated than cooked eggs, and I believe they af- 
 ford more nutriment and energy. 
 
 There are some persons, even after taking 
 the milk diet, who cannot use milk as a drink 
 with other foods without noticing a costive 
 effect, but they all, I believe, can take milk 
 alone, or milk and fruit, or bread and milk, 
 and make a satisfactory and easily digested 
 meal. Bread and milk suppers are a favorite 
 - with some of my former patients, who are past 
 80, and have no teeth. Bread and milk and 
 fresh apples make a good combination. Any 
 
AFTER TREATMENT. 171 
 
 bread to be used in milk should be slightly 
 stale, never fresh and soft. Whole wheat or 
 Graham bread is far better than the white 
 bread made from patent bolted flour, which 
 contains little but the starchy part of the 
 grain. 
 
 Some people like toast, or zwieback, prob- 
 ably because it tastes crisp in the mouth and 
 affords something to chew, but toast is a very 
 poor article of food and usually constipating. 
 It is really nothing but a cinder of carbonized 
 starch and gluten. The day of toast and tea 
 for invalids is gone, and will never return, in 
 sensible households. 
 
 The legumes, beans, peas, lentils and pea- 
 nuts afford valuable nitrogenous food. Green 
 peas are excellent ground up, seasoned and 
 slightly heated. Adding milk or butter im- 
 proves them. Raw peanuts are liked by many 
 people better than the roasted ones. 
 
 Uncooked wheat may be used in seven 1 
 ways. Many children know how to chew a 
 spoonful of wheat up until the starch is all 
 dissolved by the saliva, leaving the pure gluten 
 as a gum which can be chewed all day, as the 
 alkaline saliva has no digestive effect on it. 
 This kind of gum has the merit of being real 
 
172 MILK DIET. 
 
 ]y nutritious, and will stimulate the flow of 
 saliva and assist stomach digestion as much as 
 any of the "pepsin" compounds with indi- 
 gestible chicle which are so extensively sold. 
 
 Hard Northern wheat is the best kind, and 
 it may be made into a very palatable dish by 
 soaking for 36 hours, changing the water two 
 or three times to prevent it souring. It is then 
 so swollen and soft that it can readily be eaten 
 with cream, or honey. It may be warmed be- 
 fore using. This is a sovereign remedy for 
 constipation. Rye can be used in the same 
 way and is generally regarded as more laxa- 
 tive than any other cereal. Flake rye, or 
 rolled rye is a good breakfast food, but most 
 people prefer to cook it about fifteen 'minutes. 
 
 Wheat may be parched in a hot skillet un- 
 til the grains puff up and become crisp and 
 palatable. This is called spargo, and may be 
 chewed or ground up and eaten with cream 'or 
 hot milk. Corn spargo can be made from 
 dried sweet corn parched in the same way. 
 Spargo is the principal diet of some of the 
 Sicilian peasants. 
 
 Nuts are a good food, but rather concen- 
 trated. Most of them are improved by soak- 
 ing in water for a day, before cracking. 
 
AFTER TREATMENT. 173 
 
 Milk and sour milk are prepared in various 
 ways to render them more easily digestible. 
 It is well, in this connection, to remember that 
 it is possible to give the stomach too little to 
 do, and that a continuous feeding of pre-di- 
 gested foods may weaken that organ. 
 
 I never advise the use of sweet milk 
 as a drink with meals, but certainly butter- 
 milk and sour milk can be used, in moderation, 
 with good effect. It is difficult to get good 
 buttermilk, and the so-called buttermilk tab- 
 lets, pretending to be cultures of strange and 
 beneficial germs from foreign lands, are most- 
 ly humbugs. 
 
 The best way to prepare buttermilk, or 
 rather, sour milk, is to take the fresh, warm 
 milk, and put it away in a glass fruit jar, in a 
 warm place. If the weather is cool, or the 
 drink wanted soon, place a teaspoonful of sour 
 milk in the jar, as a starter. In about 24 hours 
 the milk will be coagulated, or "clabbered." 
 
 Now empty the contents of the jar into a 
 bowl and beat up with an eggbeater, until 
 liquid and frothy, when it is ready to drink. 
 
 Junket tablets to coagulate sweet milk can 
 be bought at drug stores, and many useful 
 recipes come with each little box. With their 
 
174 MILK DIET. 
 
 aid most delicious and digestible dishes can 
 be made from milk and eggs without cooking. 
 
 No matter what food is given the stomach, 
 it makes an effort to digest it, and nearly al- 
 ways succeeds with any simple, natural food: 
 but combinations of various classes of foods 
 render the stomach's work more difficult. 
 Professor Pawlow's researches have thrown 
 great light on the subject of gastric and pan- 
 creatic digestive secretions. He showed that 
 each kind of food ingested was instrumental 
 in causing the secretion of digestive juices es- 
 pecially adapted to that food, but when sev- 
 eral kinds of food were taken at the same 
 time, a stomach had to be in very good order 
 to make gastric juice suited to all. 
 
 To this fact, no doubt, is due the origin 
 of numerous mono-diet cures. 
 
 Perhaps one of the oldest of these is the 
 so-called grape cure, whch has been and is 
 still used in various parts of the world. The 
 method of giving this treatment varies in 
 different places. Usually the patients go to 
 the vineyard and live out doors while eat- 
 ing several pounds of grapes daily. As high 
 as ten or twelve pounds can be taken, but 
 
AFTER TREATMENT. 175 
 
 the usual daily allowance is two to four 
 pounds. In some cases a small amount of 
 coarse bread is added to the fruit. The diet 
 is quite laxative, and has been considered ex- 
 cellent for digestive disturbances and con- 
 sumption. In some places the custom is to 
 swallow the seeds while in other localities 
 this is not advised. The skins are usually, 
 but not always, rejected. The soreness of 
 the mouth frequently caused by the diet is 
 relieved by rinsing the mouth with cold 
 water containing a little bi-carbonatc 
 soda. A disadvantage of this cure is 
 fact that it is only available at one season 
 of the year. 
 
 Another remedy is the apple cure, which 
 is now available at almost any time of the 
 year. 
 
 A very good remedy for malarial pois- 
 on, and, perhaps, other disorders, consists in 
 living exclusively on tomatoes for weeks at a 
 time. In my experience with this diet the to- 
 matoes were cooked, but with little or no 
 seasoning. I presume the fresh, uncooked 
 fruit would be satisfactory. Cranberries are 
 said to have a curative influence on rhettma- 
 
176 MILK DIET. 
 
 tism, and the use of uncooked vegetables, as 
 carrots, for instance, is beneficial in skin dis- 
 ease. Recently an exclusive diet of cooked 
 turnip tops has been tried in a laVge East- 
 ern hospital,, for digestive troubles, and with 
 excellent effect, it is said. 
 
 The meat diet, called the Salisbury 
 treatment, was popular in this country twen- 
 ty years ago, and may be valuable in cer- 
 tain cases, such as obesity. The meat used 
 consisted of very slightly cooked, lean beef. I 
 have known of patients taking as many as 
 eighteen steaks daily, with a crust of bread, 
 and usually hot water and . orange juice to 
 relieve the constipation. This method is dan- 
 gerous in certain conditions and certainly has 
 not the general application of the fruit cures. 
 
 None of the above named foods contain 
 in themselves a well balanced ration for the 
 human body, and sooner or later, the diet 
 would have to be changed to prevent star- 
 vation. 
 
 Some writers claim that eggs are a per- 
 fect food, but certainly we cannot do with 
 eggs what we can with milk alone. An egg 
 contains splendid food material, but it is 
 
AFTER TREATMENT. 177 
 
 primarily intended for the propagation of the 
 species, while milk is secreted purely for food 
 purposes and by an animal closer to the hu- 
 man race than the bird family. 
 
178 
 
 PULSE BLANK. 
 
 PULSE 
 
 PULSE 
 
 WEIGHT 
 
 DATE 
 
 NO. 
 
 DATE 
 
 NO. 
 
 DATE 
 
 POUNDS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MEMORANDA. 
 
MEASUREMENT BLANK. 
 
 179 
 
INDEX 
 
 After Treatment ' 164 
 
 Anemia 50 
 
 Aneurism 109, 131. 14u 
 
 Appendicitis 122 
 
 Apple Cure 175 
 
 Apoplexy 131, 151 
 
 Arkansas Hot Springs 116 
 
 Arterio Sclerosis 50, 130 
 
 Asthma Ill, 119 
 
 Bad Taste in Mouth 40, 76 
 
 Bath, cold 45, 158 
 
 friction 167 
 
 in hot weather 43 
 
 shower 45 
 
 temperature 42 
 
 tubs 23 
 
 warm 21, 42, 147, 167 
 
 Bathing 45 
 
 caps 44 
 
 during menstruation 44 
 
 Bed 17 
 
 'clothes 18 
 
 Biliousness 50 
 
 Bladder 53, 131 
 
 Blood Circulation 44, 51, 55 
 
 Bowel Trouble 67 
 
 Bread 171 
 
 Breakfast Foods 82 
 
 Breathing 79, 165 
 
 Bright's Disease 119, 125, 126, 149 
 
 Bronchitis 112, 119 
 
 Cancer 134 
 
 Catarrh ., 50, 111 
 
 Chewing 85 
 
INDEX. 181 
 
 Chlorosis ............................................... 128 
 
 Clock .................................................. 21 
 
 Clothing ...................................... 165, 166, 167 
 
 Coated Tongue ......................................... 40 
 
 Cocaine Habit .......................................... 50 
 
 Constipation ...................... 30, 50,^, 161, 168, 172 
 
 Consumption ....................................... 50, 105 
 
 Cooking ................................................ 81 
 
 Cough ................................................. 106 
 
 Crises .......................................... 50, 118, 138 
 
 Danger of Hemorrhage ................................ 109 
 
 Deafness ............................................... 44 
 
 Defecation ........................... , ................. 90 
 
 Diabetes ............. ........................ 10, 30, 47, 133 
 
 Diarrhea .......................................... 67, 123 
 
 Dilated Stomach ................................... 30, 123 
 
 Dropsy ......................................... 59, 128, 149 
 
 Dyspepsia ........................................... 50, 75 
 
 Eggs .............................................. 170, 176 
 
 Kmbolism .......................... 131 
 
 Emphysema ......................... . 112 
 
 Enemas ..................................... . ...... 95, 102 
 
 Eruption on Skin .................. .......... v ......... 50 
 
 Exercise ........................................... 97, 153 
 
 and milk diet ..................................... 149 
 
 effect of ......................................... 155 
 
 Easting ......................................... 29, 101, 116 
 
 Ecces ............................... . .................. 89 
 
 Fever .................................................. 60 
 
 Eibroid Tumor ......................................... 132 
 
 Eood ................................................... 169 
 
 Fresh Air .............................................. 15 
 
 Fruits ........................................ 30, 77, 92, 101 
 
 (!as in Stomach ........................................ 40 
 
 Grape Cure .................................... - ........ 174 
 
 Gout .............................................. 115, 119 
 
 143 
 
 Hair ................... .44 
 
 Handball ................................................ 162 
 
 Hay Fever ...................................... 11, 50, 112 
 
 Headaches . ; ........................................... 30 
 
 Heart Stimulation . 52 
 
182 MILK DIET. 
 
 Disease 52, 126, 127, 129 
 
 Hot Water Heaters 22 
 
 Hunger on Milk Diet 76 
 
 Hyperemia 57 
 
 Indigestion 38, 42, 50, 78, 85 
 
 Injury on Milk Diet 140 
 
 Insomnia 42, 50 
 
 Inunctions 73 
 
 Junket 174 
 
 Kidneys 53, 124, 126 
 
 Long Beach, Cal 116 
 
 Malaria 50, 176 
 
 Massage 81, 145 
 
 Measurements 32 
 
 Blank 179 
 
 Meat Eating 169, 177 
 
 Medicines , 56 
 
 Membranous Colitis 124 
 
 Milk, asses 9 
 
 amount of 32 
 
 boiled 25, 26 
 
 buttermilk 99, 173 
 
 camel's 9 
 
 can 20 
 
 carrying 49 
 
 curds in stomach 37, 39 
 
 cream 27 
 
 delivery of 28 
 
 digestion of 36 
 
 diluted : 39 
 
 Durham 27 
 
 glasses 20, 35 
 
 handling of . . . . 25, 27 
 
 Holstein 27, 28 
 
 Jersey 27 
 
 long course of 46 
 
 mare's 9 
 
 pasteurized 25, 26 
 
 preserved 25, 26 
 
 salts ; . 28 
 
 skimmed 40, 126 
 
 sour 26, 99, 173 
 
 sour milk cheese . . 99 
 
INDEX. 183 
 
 sterili/ed 25 
 
 warming 38, 39 
 
 Mitchell, Weir 10, 47, 120, 145 
 
 Morphine Habit 50 
 
 Muscles 62 
 
 Nausea 38, 41 
 
 Nephritis 149 
 
 Nervous Prostration 11, 59 
 
 Neuralgia 50 
 
 of heart 131 
 
 Neurasthenia 50 
 
 Night Drinking 40 
 
 Nuts ..172 
 
 Odor From Skin 120 
 
 Oertel's Treatment 126 
 
 Oil Stove 39 
 
 Organs of Generation 145 
 
 Pain 139 
 
 Painful Menstruation 132 
 
 Pancreas 85 
 
 Paralysis 131 
 
 Pa\vlow, Prof 174 
 
 Pepsin 81 
 
 Perspiration 18, 69, 97, 156 
 
 Piles 50, 92 
 
 Pimples 49, 50 
 
 Preliminary Arrangements 15 
 
 Psychology of Milk Cure 135 
 
 Pulse 51, 60 
 
 blank 178 
 
 Purin Bodies 120 
 
 Raw Food . . 169 
 
 wheat 171, 172 
 
 Reactions During Treatment 51 
 
 Reading 146 
 
 Relaxing 146 
 
 Rest 63, 142 
 
 Rheumatism 50, 70, 115 
 
 Rheumatoid Arthritis 121 
 
 Salisbury Treatment 177 
 
 Sallowness 49 
 
 Sanitarium Treatment 136 
 
 Schroth's Treatment . ..126 
 
184 MILK DIET. 
 
 Skin 69, 167 
 
 Sleep 36, 78 
 
 Sleeping Garments 18 
 
 Spargo 172 
 
 Spectacles , 168 
 
 Starting the Treatment 29 
 
 Stools, color of 103 
 
 Soap 42 
 
 Sphincter Muscles 88 
 
 Suggestion 135 
 
 Thirst on Milk Diet 77 
 
 Toast 171 
 
 Tobacco Habit 50 
 
 Tuffnell's Treatment 126 
 
 Typhoid Fever 122 
 
 Ulcer of Stomach 50 
 
 Uric Acid 118,120 
 
 Urinal 19, 132 
 
 Urine 53, 125 
 
 Various Diseases 122 
 
 Vegetables .' 170 
 
 Ventilation '. 16, 44 
 
 Vomiting 38, 41 
 
 Water Drinking 101, 168 
 
 Weighing 31 
 
 Weight 70 
 
 Wilcox, Ella Wheeler 47 
 
 Wrinkles . . 50 
 
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