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 OF THIS 
 
 BOOK OF GENERAL MEMBERSHIP 
 
 IS AS follows: 
 
 When the remittance is sent direct to Ralston Health Club, ) 
 Washington, D. C, for one or more copies, the price per copy is J 
 
 When ordered of a bookseller, the price per copy is $1,25 
 
 We charge the bookseller $1.00, in lots of one or one hundred thousand ; 
 ■we prepay transit, and the bookseller makes a net profit of twenty -five cents. 
 
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 deliver immediately, the price per copy is 81.10 
 
 .v^^jv-? "^^fc" <M©^. 
 
•J-BOOKI. 
 
 GENERAL MEMBERSHIP 
 
 ^ RALSTON * 
 HEALTH CLUB 
 
 . . . (Bcneral Aembersblp 
 
 INCLUDES THE ENTIRE SYSTEM OF THE RALSTON HEALTH CLCB AS FAR AS IT BELATES TO 
 
 MEMBERS OF CLASS ONE 
 
 OR THOSE WHO HAVE GOOD HEALTH AND WISH TO RETAIN IT. 
 
 . . . ^bi0 asoofi ... 
 
 Coiitains the great doctrines of the Ralston System op Health, conned from the 
 realms of Nature and the pages of Science. 
 
 SKVENTH EDITION 
 
 INTERPRETED BY 
 
 EDMUND SHAFTESBURY, 
 
 liiulVPBftlTY V**®' ^°'^* ^^^ bonor, wealth nor power, 
 VNIYC.KVII1 J Can give the bcart a cbcerful hour 
 
 "WHben bcaltb is lost. JSe timely wise, 
 XSaitb bealtb all taste of pleasure flies.' 
 
 Health 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
^-.' '-,. 
 
 The First Edition was Private. 
 
 The Second Edition was Copyrighted in 1882 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Third Edition was Copyrighted in 1891 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Fourth Edition was Copyrighted in 1892 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Fifth Edition was Copyrighted in 1893 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Sixth Edition was Copyrighted in 1894 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Seventh Edition was Copyrighted in 1895 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION.- 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Seventh Edition was again Copyrighted in 1896 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Seventh Edition was again Copyrighted in 1897 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Seventh Edition was again Copyrighted in 1897 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 The Seventh Edition was again Copyrighted in 1898 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 \^ 
 
 HEALTH 
 
OBJECTS OF THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 1. We would teach the importance of taking care of the health 
 while it yet remains. 
 
 2. We would restore to health all who are sick. 
 
 3. We would not discard physicians ; but would seek aid from 
 the Natural Laws of life, and thus help the honest doctor in his 
 efforts to cure disease. 
 
 4. We would teach the plain causes of ill health in such a 
 way that men, women and children will know and avoid the con- 
 sequences of every injudicious act. 
 
 5. We would come into the lives of all who are diseased, and 
 show them the way to health, wherever it is within the range of 
 human possibility to grant this blessing. 
 
 6. We would acquaint them with the inevitable laws of life, 
 the tendencies of disease, and the possibilities of cure. 
 
 7. We would warn them against using patent medicines, or 
 taking into the system any drugs, except when prescribed by a 
 local physician of well-established reputation. 
 
 8. We would teach the great fact that Nature tends to heal all 
 disease as soon as the irritating cause is removed. 
 
 9. We would aid them to form an alliance with Nature, which 
 furnishes the impulses of life, and is therefore the source of health 
 and recovery. 
 
 10. We would teach them the greatest of laws, that the facul- 
 ties are best preserved by their continuous use ; and, with per- 
 fected health and strengthened faculties, they should reach the 
 highest plane of earthly achievement. 
 
 11. We would organize a Universal Fraternity of Ralstonites, 
 whose great purpose should be to spread the doctrines of good 
 health, cleanly lives, purit}^ of heart, and progressive existence; 
 to build homes on these principles, and create neighborly 
 communities. 
 
 (5) 
 
6 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 **This is an Age of Kalstonism." 
 
 TDALSTONISM is the grandest movement that man is capable 
 
 ^ of establishing. — Guernsey. 
 
 A NATOMY, that sacred genesis, which shows us the master- 
 
 piece of the Creator, and which teaches us how little and 
 
 how great man is, ought to form the constant study of mankind. 
 
 But we ought not to consider the organs of the body as the lifeless 
 
 forms of a mechanical mass, but as the living, active instruments 
 
 of the soul. — Ling. 
 
 ~r IFE is the happiest gift of God ; and the human body is the 
 best of Nature's handiwork. It is perfect in design and 
 wonderful in construction. Carelessness, aided by ignorance, is 
 responsible for all its diseases and all its defects. A regulated 
 system of health would astound mankind with results both 
 marvelous and enjoyable. — Hale. 
 
 Q TAR of hope and Circle of perfection ! Twin symbol of ideal 
 Nature's grand estate! If ever the purposes of God are 
 realized in the life of man, it must be through some such plan 
 as that for which Ralstonism so earnestly pleads. — Abbott. 
 n^HE efforts of the physician must be seconded by the patient, 
 and this concurrence must not be faint and faltering, but 
 determined and earnest. If his energies, or what remains of them, 
 can thus be enlisted in his own behalf, the victory is already half 
 gained. — Taylor. 
 
 /^ VER the firmament of modern science the Star of Ralstonism 
 ^^^ has ascended to its zenith. It is the guiding star that never 
 sets in the life of that human being who believes that the care of 
 health is a duty ; that the dictates of common sense should be 
 observed in eating; that cheerfulness is a virtue; and that true 
 home life is the basis of a nation's grandeur. 
 ''M^ATURAL laws, which are the angels of the Most High, ar^d 
 obey his mandates, are rolling on the time when the " child 
 shall die a hundred years old," (Isaiah Ixv : 20,) when sickness 
 shall fade from the world and with it the sins of the soul. Then 
 men shall stand up with no sickness in the body, and no taint of 
 sin in the soul. My hope for the human race is bright as the 
 morning star, for a glory is coming to man such as the most 
 inspired tongues of prophets and of poets have never been able 
 to describe. — Emerson. 
 
OF rut 
 
 WN»VEH»fTY 
 
 or 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 (SOCIAL DIVISION) 
 
 THE SPAN OF LIFE. 
 
 ®RIUMPHAL arch, that fiU'st the sky 
 When storms prepare to part, 
 I ask not proud Philosophy 
 To teach me what thou art. 
 
 Thomas Campbell. 
 
 Let us make onrseloes members o^ a neic and better race." — Shafle^mry. 
 
 'LWAYS being born and always dying, the human 
 race lives on; it seems imperishable; yet every one 
 of its members is doomed. Like the body, it dies in 
 parts and survives as a whole. The individual con- 
 siders his own existence of supreme importance, com- 
 pared with all the millions about him; but to an 
 observer a drop of water in the ocean is of little consequence. 
 Humanity has been coming into the world for thousands of 
 years, and has as steadily been going out of it. 
 
 There is a class of fools who say they do not care to live 
 to a good old age, for they dread the feebleness and dependence 
 of senility. The grossest physical sin of life is a desire to die, or 
 a carelessness about living. Old age is exactly what you make it. 
 We can name more than one hundred men and women between 
 the ages of eighty and ninety who are as lively, bright-witted, 
 independent and cheerful as the average person of forty. They 
 enjoy living. They not only show a desire to remain on earth, 
 but they even expect to live until they are one hundred years old, 
 and some of them openly boast of it. 
 
 The span of life in this the nineteenth century, and in the 
 trend of the very epoch in which we live, is one long and solemn 
 rebuke against the careless drift of physical existence. In the 
 United States alone, one million people are born every few 
 months ; one million babies, destined each and all to meet death ; 
 for at the end of ten decades they are practically extinct. Let us 
 follow this million through the span of life. Many thousands are 
 so feeble at birth that they die in a single day. Those who survive 
 are promptly attacked by disease. 
 
8 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 In the first five years of life this product of a few months' 
 birth will have been reduced by many maladies, some of which 
 ■will appear in prominent results. Whooping-cough will have 
 carried off 15,000 ; scarlatina, 17,000; and infantile cholera nearly 
 20,000. Diphtheria, measles and fever fall upon the little mites 
 and slay about 30,000; consumption as many more; and violent 
 deaths 12,000. In or about the length of this period a quarter of 
 a million have dropped off. More boys have died than girls ; and, 
 although there were 22,000 more boys than girls on the first day, 
 the two sexes are now pretty nearly equal. 
 
 In the next five years, from five to ten, the chances of life 
 increase, and less than 36,000 die. If a child reaches ten, death 
 from sickness is not likely to occur for some time ; for the healthiest 
 period of life, as far as fatal results go, is between the ages of ten 
 and fifteen. The vitality is greater and the true nature of each 
 constitution asserts itself. It is at this period that parents may 
 encourage their boys and girls to cultivate good health ; for, by 
 carelessness, the strongest constitution may collapse ; or, by proper 
 attention, the weakest may develop into a tower of strength. 
 Nature now furnishes her greatest supply of vitality to the race. 
 
 The next period is sickly, and seems in direct contrast with 
 the preceding. This is because the exuberant blessings of the 
 former lead to extreme carelessness, and hence the reaction. From 
 fifteen to twenty the deaths increase. Consumption begins to show 
 great activity and, from this time on, mows down its victims, con- 
 tinuing up to the age of fifty and even sixty. In this period, from 
 fifteen to twenty, the violent deaths under ordinary conditions 
 reach 3,000, of which 400 are of females ; but, since the use of the 
 bicycle has become so general, it is estimated that 8,000 males and 
 13,000 females lose their lives at this epoch, by accident. 
 
 Consumption claims more victims in the period from 
 twenty to twenty-five; and suicides increase. In the preceding 
 period sixty males and as many females killed themselves ; and 
 that is the only era in which as many females as males take their 
 own lives. Now the male suicides outnumber them three to one. 
 Insanity appears, and many die of brain and of heart diseases. 
 From the age of twenty-five to thirty, typhoid slays the largest 
 number, while other contagions play an inferior part. The great- 
 est marrying age begins at twenty-five, two-thirds of all women 
 who marry, entering wedlock between twenty-five and thirty-five. 
 
THE SPAN OF LIFE. 9 
 
 The period when human action is most prominent and 
 most effective in results is that extending from the age of twenty-five 
 to thirty-five. In the use of the mind as well as of the body this era 
 is equally marked. Great generalship, great athletic feats, mental 
 progress and plans of stupendous moment are now seen. Ambition 
 overrides all other considerations. Women die of consumption in 
 unusual numbers ; but men become the victims of organic diseases, 
 affecting the heart, stomach, lungs, liver and kidneys. To sustain 
 the unusual strain, stimulants such as coffee and alcohol are 
 resorted to, from which the victims will hear in later life. 
 
 Organs begin to fail in the period from thirty -five .to forty- 
 five. It is the great era of organic fatalism. All physical exertions, 
 when excessive, overtax the heart, and many fall dead, though in 
 apparently perfect health. The chest is the seat of the greatest 
 fatality, consumption leading, followed by bronchitis, pneumonia, 
 and the various throat and lung maladies. It is now that the 
 most exacting attention should be given to the care and cultivation 
 of the chest. Excesses, careless indifference to health, insanity 
 and suicides are very much increased ; nearly 600 people killing 
 themselves. 
 
 The half-way point is reached at the age of forty-five. One- 
 half of the million we started with have died ; 250,000 die in the 
 first five or six years, and 250,000 more die between the ages of six 
 and forty-five. During the ten years ending with the age of fifty- 
 five, the deaths are not so numerous as might be expected. It is a 
 great living period ; and stands as a key to the last half of the cen- 
 tury ; in which men and women are given a special vitality on 
 which to lay the foundation of a good old age, if they are willing 
 to take advantage of it. It is a gift that should not be trifled with ; 
 just as the special vitality of the child from the age often to fifteen 
 held the key of a lifetime of health. 
 
 The cancer period begins at this time ; its results appear- 
 ing more and more every year, and destroying three times as many 
 women as men. While cancer in both sexes is undoubtedly due 
 largely to meat-eating in excess, it is nevertheless true that latent 
 or inherited cancer is always developed by the use of alcohol 
 whether mild or not. Thus beer-drinking women are sure to excite 
 into activity any cancer that is already in their system. About 
 300,000 of the million enter the sixty-fifth year, and here the last 
 stage in the journey is begun. 
 
10 THE RALSTOhl HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 The ranks now thin out fast, for in the ten years from 
 sixty -five to seventy-five the 300,000 are reduced to 160,000, and at 
 the age of eighty-five only 35,000 remain. Cancer has been the 
 most active among women, and lung diseases among men ; although 
 paralysis, gout, rheumatism and heart failure are playing their 
 deadly parts. Women outlive men in old age. A man who sur- 
 vives sixty will probably die before seventy-two. Heart failure is 
 the greatest enemy of one who has, in earlier life, indulged much in 
 stimulants, medicines or excesses. The 35,000 that survived at the 
 age of eighty-five fall rapidly away ; at ninety-five these are only 
 2100; at the end of the century only 220; and at 110 years only 
 one remains. 
 
 Three questions are pertinent at this time : do you wish 
 to keep well? — are you willing to make a slight effort to keep 
 well? — are you willing to make a reasonably earnest effort to keep 
 well? If so, then look over this span of life, and think of the vast 
 hordes of people who fall by the wayside under the curse of 
 disease, in the years of life when health was held out to them like 
 a rope of iron, and they heeded it not. It is not hard to keep well ; 
 but if you belong to that very large class of people who do not be- 
 lieve in bothering about the health until sickness comes, then lay 
 this book aside until you are stricken down ; but begin to lay up 
 money to pay the doctor's bill, to buy the medicines and to meet 
 your other expenses, say a hundred dollars at the lowest. Well 
 people get sick ; and sometimes, aye often, they die suddenly. You 
 have no right to expect to be an exception to Nature's laws ; there- 
 fore be ready to meet the penalty, if you do not care to keep well. 
 
 A Good Ralstonite is one who tries, as far as circumstances 
 allow, to eat reasonably pure food, to get vitalized air and to ob- 
 serve some small part of Ralston Day. In order to be such, you 
 should think what food means; what it is for; what kinds are 
 better than others ; and you should eat to get strength from your 
 food ; all these helps being provided for you in the chapters on eat- 
 ing. You should also get fresh air as frequently as possible. If 
 you go to a window and empty the lungs completely, then fill them 
 deeply, you will get some glame and obtain some good. Such 
 little helps tell wonderfully on the health. Then observe some 
 part of Ralston Day. To sum up, if for a month you do these 
 things, all of which are very simple, short and easy, you may re- 
 gard yourself as a Good Ralstonite. 
 
u 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 (SPEfclAL DIVISION.) 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE CLUB. 
 
 gi BREEZE came wandering from the sky, 
 /3rV Light as the whispers of a dream ; 
 He put the overhanging grasses by. 
 And softly stooped to kiss the stream. 
 
 Bryant. 
 
 " Sature, the handmaid of God, delights onli] in the glor^ of 
 perfect humanity. " — Shaftesbury. 
 
 MAN was suffering from the results of careless living 
 when the news came that he had inherited a large 
 fortune. He was unprepared for it. During the years 
 of youth and early manhood he had paid no attention 
 to his physical being. It could not be said of him 
 that he had wilfully disobeyed his judgment in any 
 particular relating to matters of health ; but it was true that he 
 had drifted along in utter indifference to the subject. He laughed 
 at the idea of ever getting sick, and went so far as to poke fun at 
 those who earnestly prayed that he might be spared from illness 
 and disease. 
 
 Before he knew of his wealth he realized that he was a 
 sick man ; yet how it came to pass he could not tell. Repeated 
 exposure to dampness and chill had brought on colds ; from which 
 his kidneys, lungs, throat, head and muscles had been affected. 
 From an occasional recurrence of local fever, the inflammation 
 extended to the membrane of the throat, thence to the lungs ; and 
 at length he feared consumption, for each succeeding cold remained 
 longer and became more severe. Pains in the muscles and bones 
 added to his misery ; and, finally, a certain analysis showed that 
 his kidneys were far advanced in chronic disease. 
 
 ^A^hethe^ these maladies were caused by colds, or whether 
 his liability to catch cold was due to the weakened vitality of his 
 system, arising from improper food, he did not know, and he did 
 not care to know until he found himself a hopeless invalid. He 
 did learn, however, that several of his friends who were afflicted 
 with stomach trouble, had succumbed to pneumonia, kidney dis- 
 
121 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 ease or heart failure ; and his physician explained to him that if 
 the blood was reduced to a state of impurity, all the organs of life 
 would be weakened, because their very existence depended upon 
 a daily supply of pure blood. Diseased stomachs could never 
 make sound flesh. 
 
 One day a lady friend who had observed that he was losing 
 his clear complexion, asked him why he did not take care of him- 
 self. This was before he had come to realize his condition. He 
 told her that he had never known a sick day in all his life, and 
 never expected to. " What is the use of worrying about one's 
 health ? I am well. If I get sick, then is the time to think about 
 taking care of myself" His friend attempted to argue that a little 
 precaution might ward off a spell of sickness ; but he replied that 
 if a man was well he was well and that was all there was of it. 
 
 Then came the news of his fortune ; and all at once life 
 opened its alluring wings and bore him away to heights of pleasure 
 far beyond the brightest dreams of youth. The sky was one broad 
 expanse of blue, so deep and entrancing that it seemed the eternal 
 sea from earth to heaven. The land was newly clothed, and 
 decked in fairest hues, as though to blazon his path tp happiness. 
 There was a splendid mansion awaiting him; grounds carpeted in 
 lawns ; flowers and fruits smiling with love ; luxury and conveni- 
 ence on every side ; and, above all, the hand of a bride to place 
 the crown of bliss upon his brow. But he was sick. 
 
 He was undoubtedly dying, and the physicians could not 
 help him ; although he -employed the ablest doctors that money 
 might secure. Fortunes could not purchase health; but yet he 
 remembered that there was a time when a little care, a very little, 
 would have prevented the disaster, that now had placed him be- 
 yond all human aid. He called the experts to his side and 
 promised them a princely sum if they could save his life. He 
 pleaded with them for hope. Death seemed awful to one who 
 yearned to live. They spoke frankly and bravely to him and said 
 his malady was incurable. He prayed to God, but Nature an- 
 swered that her laws alone determined life and death; and he 
 must die. 
 
 This man then sent for the lady friend who had once urged 
 him to take care of his health while it yet remained. He told her 
 that this was the blessed doctrine of human life. Opportunity 
 was the fairest gem of earth, though the rarest prized ; and could 
 
ORIGIN OF THE CLUB. 13 
 
 he now but seize it in his grasp, he would lay his fortune, life and 
 all, upon the altar of his God, and devote them to the preaching of 
 that sublime truth. This lady was a Ralstonite, one of the early 
 converts to the faith that Nature is the supreme healer of disease. 
 By its very laws she had been saved from death, and gratitude had 
 made her a loyal pleader of its cause. 
 
 *' Tell me what Ralstonism is ? " he eagerly asked ; " is it 
 faith, or science, or medicine ? " She told him it was plain com- 
 mon sense; an alliance with Nature, the source of all health and 
 recovery. She said that Ralstonism was pj*oof of the fact that the 
 simplest methods are the most effective in the cure of ^disease. 
 " What is the cost ? " he asked. " It is nothing." " If Ralstonism 
 will restore me to health I will give all I possess." To this the 
 lady replied : " All persons in the presence of death are willing to 
 make any sacrifice to get well, but once restored they regard health 
 as a matter of no importance. Ralstonites reverse this rule ; they 
 take care of health when they have it, and they show respect for 
 those who preach this doctrine. I can help you. As a good Ral- 
 stonite I am willing to try. I ask no money ; and I am sure the 
 Club does not seek anything more than your loyal friendship to 
 its principles." 
 
 His lady friend, white-haired with age, independent of for- 
 tune, and sincere in her hope to save from death the physical 
 wreck that lay before her, showed him the wonderful purpose of 
 Nature in the daily operations of life in the human system. He 
 learned for the first time in his existence that there are certain 
 foods that make exactly what the body needs ; that, as the old 
 and diseased tissue breaks down each day, new and perfect flesh 
 may be made to take its place ; and, instead of doctoring with 
 medicines for the diseased organs and impure blood, the more sen- 
 sible way is to let them waste, and then discard them ; while the 
 new and perfect flesh rebuilds the parts just as fast as they break 
 down. He also learned two more things : one was how to hasten 
 the wasting of diseased tissue and bad blood ; the other how to 
 quicken the absorption of the new and perfect material to take 
 the place of the old. 
 
 It is the belief of Ralstonites that no case of disease is 
 hopeless. The principles under which they live are new, and hence 
 many surprises follow ; some cures having been regarded as mira- 
 cles, because they were effected at times when no one believed 
 
14 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 recovery possible. The good lady actually proved to the dying 
 man that he might safely die, and yet live ; provided death was 
 displaced by life as fast as it occurred. One day he said to his 
 physician : " Doctor, how is this ? Is it true that parts of the body 
 die every day ? " " Certainly it is. Every schoolboy ought to 
 know that. Life is change ; and the change consists in the death 
 of old material to make way for the new." The patient's eyes 
 showed a gleam of intelligence that comes with the dawn of a new 
 idea, as he exclaimed : " Then is it not true that the health of the 
 body depends upon the character of the new material?" The 
 doctor caught the principle. He admitted that it was unknown 
 to the medical profession ; yet was so "closely allied to the very 
 oldest of facts in physiology that it might be mistaken for the idea 
 of waste and supply. The newness of the doctrine consists in the 
 advantage taken of the old law ; and is embraced in the following 
 steps : 
 
 1. How shall the waste of diseased tissue matter be quickened ? 
 
 2. How shall it be thrown from the system ? 
 
 3. Of what material shall the new body be built ? 
 
 4. How shall the new be made to take the place of the old ? 
 
 If the mere knowledge of food values could accomplish 
 the result of making a new body, the process would be easy ; but 
 the early Ralstonites learned that sickness is a decay that is not 
 easily thrown off, a contamination often that spreads and carries 
 danger to the wholesome parts. This problem had to be met. 
 Again, they learned that a sick person cannot digest pure food ; or, 
 if digested, cannot draw it into the system and absorb it as new 
 flesh. This difficulty, like the other, was met and overcome. It 
 was never the intention of those primitive followers of the new 
 truths to form a club. No thought could be further from their 
 minds than this. It was a pleasure as well as a duty to help 
 others; and they encouraged those who were well to take good 
 care of their health while they had it ; thus laying down one of 
 the well-known principles of the Club. But the exercises and 
 methods became so interesting and so important that their preser- 
 vation was considered a sacred duty. Others wanted them. The 
 friends and acquaintances of those who had been saved from the 
 grave insisted on receiving further knowledge for themselves ; and 
 thus the leaven began to work and spread. Before anyone seemed 
 to realize it, a Ralston Club had sprung into existence. 
 
ORIGIhl OF THE CLUB. 16 
 
 No man and no body of men have ever reached truths so 
 valuable and important to mankind as those which came to reward 
 the efforts of those early Ralstonites. That the organization began 
 to grow and spread of its own inherent energy was somewhat a 
 matter of wonder. It seemed as if nothing could stay its progress ; 
 and it seems so now. Tens of thousands of experiences have 
 confirmed the experiments made in the early "laboratory club" 
 of the Ralstonites, as they at one time called themselves. 
 
 That the future greatness of the Club was not foreseen is 
 evident from the following preface to the First (Manuscript) Edi- 
 tion : " Since our little society has increased, so that it is uot possi- 
 ble to meet one another in anything like a regular way, we are 
 compelled by the unanimous voice of our friends to do something 
 toward preserving the principles heretofore laid down in open 
 meeting. The Ralston doctrines are really founded upon two 
 ideas : first, that there is a natural cause for every disease ; second, 
 that there is a natural cure for the same. Among our members is 
 a man who admits, and whose physician admits, that he would 
 now be in his grave but for Ralstonism ; also a mother, whose life 
 was spared to her family after her doctors had declared that there 
 was no hope ; also a girl (whose sister's grave is an unnecessary 
 one) who came to a knowledge of Ralstonism in time to save her 
 own life ; and others who are indebted to these unfailing princi- 
 ples of mother Nature for the blessings of health that could not 
 otherwise be enjoyed. These are our only reasons for seeking to 
 preserve in written form, for the use of other generations, the 
 noblest things of human experience." 
 
 It is a monument of honor to the early Ralstonites that 
 they freely spread the news of the truths they had discovered ; 
 and that all sincere persons were given access to the facts, princi- 
 ples and doctrines, without cost, except the trouble to which they 
 might be put in copying. Some employed writers for this purpose ; 
 and, later on, a number of type- written copies were made at private 
 expense, one gentleman paying as much as twenty-five dollars for 
 the services of a typewriter, whose time was not as valuable as 
 his own. When, some years afterward, the second edition was 
 actually printed from the press, and actually sold for one dollar, 
 although it contained much less than now, it was considered a 
 blessing, and the price was very low, compared with the difficulty 
 and cost of copying. 
 
16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 (SOCIAL DIVISION.) 
 
 PLAN OF THE CLUB. 
 
 /HT'HANGELESS march the stars above, 
 ^*^ Changeless morn succeeds to even ; 
 And the everlasting hills, 
 Changeless watch the changeless Heaven. 
 
 Charles Kingdey. 
 
 A tinij cell, smaller than the eye of the most potcerliul microscope can detect, 
 contains a perfect human body."— SAq/ite«&Mrj/. 
 
 HE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB may at first be 
 hard to understand. It seems to have many divisions; 
 but, in fact, it is very simply arranged ; its system of 
 classifying its members having been approved by all 
 its previous members. Without order everything 
 would be chaos. For the purpose of testing your 
 readiness to grasp the arrangement of the club-system, the plan 
 is outlined as follows. There are two classes of people : 
 First class : — Those who are in good health. 
 Second class : — Those who are not in good health. 
 Here are presented the classes of Ralstonites. They are not 
 regarded as members until they give notice of their intention to 
 act as members. The general members are in class one, which 
 means that they are in good health. They are called general 
 because, in order to take care of the good health which they 
 so fortunately possess, a general regime, very simple and very 
 effective, is prescribed. 
 
 The second class embraces all who are not in good 
 health; but here two divisions are necessary, for some are suf- 
 fering from general ill health, and others from special diseases. 
 Therefore, those whose ill health is general only are admitted to 
 the inside knowledge of Nature's cures ; and, as soon as the body 
 is made well, they come into the general membership along with 
 the members who are in good health. In other words, they pass 
 from class two into class one. The complete members must be 
 cured of specific disease ; to them the cause and cure of all illness 
 are made known. The complete knowledge which you obtain, 
 
PLAN OF THE CLUB. 17 
 
 will enable you to save the lives of others as well as your own ; 
 and it is wise to have the book in your house in advance of 
 its need. 
 
 It is sincerely hoped that you are in class one, and will 
 always remain there. You will rarely be in danger of sickness, if 
 you give attention to the very easy regime which is prescribed. If 
 it is true that you value the health which you already have, guard 
 it now ! It is an easy matter to die. Many of those who are in 
 untimely graves were never sick until the fatal malady struck 
 them. The well man of to-day may be ill to-morrow. Perfect 
 health is not strongly founded unless it is protected by a knowl- 
 edge of Nature's laws. Take care of yourself and your loved 
 ones ; for the unnecessary graves are monuments to the broken 
 hearts of those that remain. If you are ill, by all means get weU ; 
 come back into class one to stay. 
 
 Read slowly and carefully, and reread, all that is stated 
 in this book. More light will come with each review. Read the 
 idiole book, and each word understandingly. The more you catch 
 and absorb of Ralstonism, from the slightest details to the con- 
 summate principles which mark the life action of the body, the 
 better will be your knowledge of yourself and your place in 
 Nature. 
 
 It has been well said of the Ralston Health Club that it 
 meets every wish, opportunity, and ambition of one's life ; adapt- 
 ing itself to time, place and circumstance as completely as if it 
 were the ideal of each being. These beautiful plans follow in 
 after volumes ; and do not necessarily attach themselves to your 
 membership, unless you choose to adopt them. 
 
 The plan of the club, briefly stated, is as follows: 
 
 1. THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB 
 
 WHICH IS ORGANIZED TO SAVE HUMAN LIFE 
 
 2. THE RALSTON CLUB 
 
 OTHERWISE CALLED THE 
 
 U. F. O. R. 
 
 ORGANIZED FOR 
 
 Advancement . Improvement . Mutual Assistance 
 
 Rnle — To join the U. F, O. R., in case you desire to do so, vou must be in good health 
 at the time of application ; or else, being ill, you must be able to' state truthfully that, since 
 first obtaining this Book of General Membership of the Ralston Health Club, you have made 
 a decided improvement in your health. 
 
18 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Degrees. — These are explained in the last chapter of this 
 present volume. In the Ralston Health Club there are but five 
 degrees. The first degree entitles you to Inside Membership and its 
 book ; then comes the fifth degree, and entitles you to Complete 
 Membership and its book; and there the Ralston Health Club 
 ends. All persons have a desire to become complete members. 
 The great book may be obtained free ; and the club prefers to 
 grant it as an emolument, although it has a large sale at seven 
 dollars per volume. In a city where one of these valuable books 
 was recently purchased, its many pages and illustrations attracted 
 such favorable criticism that one member sent an order for seventy- 
 five copies to supply the demand. In some homes it has saved 
 hundreds of dollars in doctor's bills ; in others thousands of dol- 
 lars. While the Book of Complete Membership is intended only 
 for the sick ; it is advisable to have such a work in the house 
 ready for use at all times. It is more fully described in the last 
 chapter of this present volume. 
 
 The degree system is bequeathed to us by the early Ral- 
 stonites. Through it we do honor to their energy, their sincerity 
 and their faithfulness. While its chief purpose is to spread 
 Ralstonism by obtaining new recruits, the incentives ofiered are 
 the most important blessings of earthly existence. All true Ral- 
 stonites desire to take degrees. We have spent fortunes in this 
 one cause. The Book of General Membership is the basis of all 
 degrees in both clubs ; because the degree system is devised for 
 the purpose of extending the use of that book, thereby spreading 
 the power of Ralstonism and doing a vast amount of good in the 
 world. 
 
 The Club-numbers are used to enable us to keep your 
 records, and to help Ralstonites know each other. Any member 
 would recognize another by the peculiarity of the Club-number, 
 which can never be mistaken for any other use. Ralstonism is so 
 easy to understand, is so full of common sense, and appeals so 
 strongly to the good judgment of people that nearly all who pos- 
 sess this volume join the club at once. No greater compliment 
 could be paid to this system. It is gratifying to note the many 
 thousands who print their Club-numbers on their letter-heads and 
 cards. We advise you to secure an Outside or Permanent Club- 
 number at once, as provided on page 23. 
 
lO 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 (SOCIAI. DIVISION.) 
 
 HOW TO ENTER THE CLUB. 
 
 W 
 
 ET thy mind still be bent, still plotting, where 
 And when, and how thy business may be done. 
 
 Slackness breeds worms; but the sure traveler, 
 Though he alights sometimes, still goeth on. 
 
 Herbert. 
 
 " The minds of some persons are so ooustituted that theg can necer be made up to 
 do a great thinQ."—Sha/te*bury. 
 
 ERHAPS the simplest way of looking at the 
 
 Ralston Club is to say that it is merely a book. It 
 is surely the name of a book ; and one may as well 
 belong to a book as to any organization that compels 
 its members to remain mere figureheads. ^' I belong 
 to a political club," says one. "What do you do?" 
 " Oh, nothing. I just belong." Another says, " I belong to a social 
 club." "What do you do?" "Nothing but smoke and chat." 
 If, therefore, a full-fledged club, with its great buildings, requires 
 nothing substantial of its members, why is not a book-club more 
 advantageous, especially if you can stay at home in the bosom of 
 your family and get some good out of it ? 
 
 But the Ralston Health Club may be made vastly more 
 important than this. It opens up possibilities for organization at 
 home and in the community ; of united efforts for securing the 
 public health ; of opportunities for educating the masses in the 
 simple doctrines of Nature, and her beautiful and wonderful 
 powers. The Ralston movement is the most important reform of 
 the century. It believes that the doctrine of perfect health is 
 solving the great moral questions of the age. Ralstonism aids 
 the church ; builds up homes everywhere ; makes happy families; 
 brings money, education and intelligence into the household; 
 establishes a progressive and neighborly community; and by 
 aiming at the root of unclean health, vicious habits and nervous 
 lives, is laying the foundation of a new race. 
 
 You should by all means decide to become a member 
 of such a club as this, whether your membership is confined to 
 
20 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 the book and its doctrines, or you choose to unite with otliers in 
 combined effort to accomplish good work. You are free to remain 
 a silent home-member, if such is your ambition ; or to decide at 
 any time to do a grander life-work for others. In either case, you 
 should join the club, as it costs nothing, and means only that you 
 wish us to record you as one who believes in good health as a 
 matter of principle. 
 
 In order to correct some of the misapprehensions which are 
 sure to enter the mind of each person who may see the pages of 
 this book for the first time, we assure you that you are not yet a 
 member of the Ralston Health Clifb, nor of any of its branches. 
 We also state that the purchase of this book, which costs you but 
 a trifle, carries with it no rights and no responsibilities. It is a 
 book whose pages contain truths that raise its value to hundreds 
 of dollars in the minds of thinking people. Nevertheless, it costs 
 you but a trifle, and it costs the publishers considerably less than 
 the trifle you pay for it. As a book, it is a piece of merchandise, 
 well worth many times the price. The fee of one dollar is for 
 membership, and for clerk hire in attending to your business for 
 the scores of years during which you may be a member. If you 
 have paid one dollar for the book, that amount is regarded as a 
 final payment, and is the only fee you will have to pay as a 
 General Member. There are no assessments at any stage of your 
 membership. 
 
 So far, so good. Let us understand each other as we go 
 along. As a purchaser of this book merely, you become only its 
 owner; you are not a member of the Ralston Health Club; not 
 even a Ralstonite ; you have only added one more book to your 
 library. But you do not intend to stop here. You believe in tak- 
 ing care of the health, and you know it ; and you are fully aware 
 of the fact that encouragement and stimulus are needed, or at 
 least are very valuable, in every human life. The school, the uni- 
 versity, the church, play their great parts in encouraging and 
 inciting mental and moral improvement; so the body and its 
 health will be better cared for, if you make this Club your home, 
 and try to live according to its doctrines. You can have no b^ter 
 friend, no truer adviser, no more loyal companion. It is our 
 honest belief that you will not lay this book aside, and join the 
 ranks of those who are not willing to give attention to health until 
 they lose it. 
 
HOPV TO ENTER THE CLUB. 21 
 
 You know that the preservation of health is a solemn 
 duty ; and if you do not care whether you are sick or well, depend- 
 ent or helpful, someone else does. You know that this is an age 
 of invalids, of dyspepsia, heart failure, diseased lungs, soft livers, 
 decayed kidneys, bad skin, lifeless blood and sickly nerves, 
 because it is an age of profound indifference. All people are 
 careless; and nearly all are ignorant of the laws of health. When 
 sickness comes, it is very easy to look back to the neglect which 
 caused it. How many thousands on beds of death have prayed 
 for one more chance to live and obey Nature's laws ! A merchant 
 said to his physician: "When I was well I scoffed at health, 
 called health-seekers cranks. Here I am ; I have to die." Another 
 said : " Doctor, get me out of this, just this once, and I will never 
 neglect my health again." Still another, and his words are ring- 
 ing now out of the past, although he has been dead sixteen years : 
 " If you can save my life, I will work for you for ten years and 
 give you all my earnings." A strong man was given an invita- 
 tion in 1890 to join the Ralston Club. He sneered at the thought 
 of sickness. He afterwards died of Bright's disease ; and, had he 
 joined when asked, he might have lived thirty or forty years yet. 
 
 The preservation of your health is a duty which you owe 
 to your family, your friends, and the public. Are you a father, 
 mother, child, or relative? What right have you to neglect your 
 health and inflict care and trouble on others, and perhaps broken 
 health in watching and doing for you ? Ill health, when due to 
 pure neglect, is a moral wrong. It robs the home of money and 
 happiness — the two chief factors of human life. More sinful is 
 that man or woman who will enter the bonds of wedlock, know- 
 ing that children born of the union are sure to grow up in suffering. 
 
 Ill health begets poverty, discontent, irritability and a dis- 
 eased mind. There can never be a sound brain in an unsound 
 body. Nearly all poverty is due to ill health either in this or a 
 previous generation. There is plenty in the world for all mankind ; 
 and no person should remain poor. Health begets good blood ; 
 this makes good brain power; this good judgment; and the 
 natural consequence is a life filled with impulses that lead to suc- 
 cess. On the other hand, nearly all irritability is due to bad 
 digestion ; and it is well known that irritability leads to nervous- 
 ness, sleeplessness, brain deficiency and insanity, on the vital side, 
 and to ugliness, ill-temper, sin and crime on the moral side. 
 
22 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 RULES FOR OBTAINING A CLUB-NUMBER. 
 
 1. This volume must be owned by the person who applies for 
 a Club-number ; and such person must, before applying, write his 
 or her name in ink on page 1 of this volume ; also the Outside or 
 Permanent Club-number when obtained. 
 
 2. This volume shall be void as a basis of membership, if 
 page 23 is lacking. 
 
 3. You should take pride in signing the Declaration of Health 
 on page 23. The most learned, as well as the most influential 
 and prominent men and women have signed it, and applied for 
 Club-numbers. 
 
 4. The opposite leaf, page 23, must not be removed unless 
 you apply for an Outside or for a Permanent Club-number ; in 
 which case the whole leaf should be cut out with a penknife 
 along the inner dotted line, which you will see by opening the 
 book as wide as possible. A margin will be left on which to paste 
 your certificate, containing the Club-number and the Password. 
 
 5. Outside Club-numbers are provided for persons who wish 
 to take no decisive steps at present. Several years are allowed 
 them in which to make up their minds whether to become per- 
 manent and enthusiastic Ralstonites or not. You may use Out- 
 side-numbers on Initiations and letter-heads, the same as you 
 would Permanent-numbers. 
 
 6. Outside Club-numbers are entered on our temporary 
 records ; and, when they become too bulky to handle, they are 
 destroyed. Hence it will be necessary to renew the Outside-num- 
 bers about every two or three years. We will renew them freely 
 on receipt of a stamped and directed envelope ; if your previous 
 number is stated. 
 
 7. A permanent Club-number is never changed. It is good 
 for all time. It means that the member is in earnest and thor- 
 oughly determined to take care of the health. The number can 
 be engraved on your stationery without fear of ever having to 
 change it. Many persons have stamps made, resembling some 
 coat of arms including the number. Our object is to spread the 
 influence of Ralstonism, and to ever increase our membership; 
 therefore, emoluments and advantages of the U. F. O. R., as well 
 as other benefits, are freely ofiered you, if you decide to change 
 your Outside number to a Permanent number, or if you start now 
 with the latter. Kindly read the final chapter of this volume. 
 
AUG Id 1898 
 
 SEND TO RALSTOX HEALTH CLUB, WASHINGTON, D. C. 23 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 fyyJ^>:i<Vi:<iikV''if:-i^Ui9C-^ii^:-U^^^^ 
 
 Wt'^.:<*-<l^>yXyXy!!^^^^ 
 
 MTWmkJE ©F []^@TlieEooo 
 
 ENTRMNOe 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 ^^ l^alston <||gctltl\ flub 
 
 ^-^ t>Eei_AKATION OP HEALTH 
 
 #- 
 
 H believe that a person who is in good health should 
 take care of itj that one who is sick should seek 
 recoYery-j as far as possiblej through the aid of Nature's 
 lowsj with the least risk of after injury to the functions 
 of the body J and I further believe that the care of the 
 health is a solemn duty which each person owesj not 
 only to selfj but to friendSj relatives and the public. 
 
 Ij therefore; extend to the Ralston Health Club tny 
 good wishes in the work it has undertaken; and I desire 
 this declaration to be regarded as the act of loyal 
 membership. I do this with the understanding that I 
 may remain merely a home-memberj if I choose j that 
 no duty in any way devolves upon mej and that my 
 name shall never be made public and never given to 
 anotherj without my consent. 
 
 In order that I may be recognized as a member of 
 the Clubj I ask that a Club-Number and Certificate be 
 sent mej for which I enclose ten cents herewith j and 
 when the certificate is received I will securely place it 
 in this part of the book from which this notice is taken. 
 
 I desire the Club-Number to be 
 
 [State whether Outside or Permanent. See other side.J 
 
 (Cit>', Town, or Post Office). 
 
 Street and Number,\ 
 
 Post Office Box J (State).. 
 
 :-i\ I have carefully addressed the en%elope to RALSTON Health Club, Washinsfton, D. C. 
 
 M 
 
24 
 
 ^ 'Je^u^ Woid^ <>f J^dv-ioe^ 
 
 mn^ 
 
 1. Read page 22 before taking out page 2S. 
 
 2. Read the final chapter of the book. 
 
 S. A Permanent Clab-number is permanent because it is 
 acquired only by a select body of Raistonitesj and the records 
 never become too bulky to handle. About thirty-five per cent, 
 of all members become permanentj sooner or later. The 
 others may remain good Ralstonites nevertheless. 
 
 4. After reading the final chapter you will decide that you 
 wish either to become a Permanent member or not. 
 
 5. If you decide that you so wishj you will then ascertain 
 that you are able or unable financially to obtain it now, 
 
 6. If able to obtain it at once you will use PORM B — in 
 the final chapter. 
 
 7. If not able to obtain it nowj you should apply for an 
 Outside-numberj and at the same time ask for free Invita- 
 tions as provided in the final chapter. These Invitationsj if 
 used judiciously; will very soon advance you to the degree 
 where you will obtain the right to the Inside and Complete 
 membership; and to a Permanent Club-numberj as emolu- 
 ments j no charge whatever being made except the small fees 
 for recording. 
 
 8. In case you apply outright for the Permanent-number^ 
 you will receive free copies of the General Membership Bookj 
 which you may easily sellj and thus recover back your full 
 outlayj leaving you with the great emoluments free. 
 
 9. Thus for $6.60 we would send you fifteen dollars 
 worth of booksj as stated in the final chapter j if you are 
 sincere in your desire to aid in spreading the membership of 
 this Clubj for the great good of humanity. 
 
THE FODR GARDINAl POINTS OF HEALTH, ^^ 
 
 PRODUCES 
 
 
 LIF^E 
 
 
 ? 
 
 X 
 
 H 
 
 
 H 
 
 E 
 
 
 
 
 
 ! A 
 
 IS 
 
 !4 
 
 ^"iHEAlrH: -«» 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ' r 
 
 09 
 
 H 
 
 X 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^JLIAaOMOl 
 
 SBonooud 
 
 SOME RALSTON PRINCIPLES. 
 
 These jewels are presented in the several books of Ralstouism 
 as distinct statements of natural laws. They furnish material for 
 private thought or for discussions in the public clubs, mentioned 
 in the final chapters of this book. Each Principle is yours when 
 you accept it ; not until then. It is a mere incident of Ralstouism. 
 
 + + 
 
 Clea7i reading and thoughts free from morbid excitement are neces- 
 sary to a healthy mind. 
 
 This is the 1st Ralston Principle. The mind is the engineer 
 of the body, and holds the throttle of health or disease. Here we 
 commence. Every organ and function of the body is governed by 
 the nerves, and the nerves are governed by the mind. A strong, 
 clean mind is a calm mind ; a strong, calm mind induces habits 
 of perfect health ; a depressed or morbidly excited mind destroys 
 vitality very rapidly; vicious reading, such as sensational news- 
 paper trash, morbidly excites the mind ; makes it muddy ; fills it 
 with scandals, caricature and murder ; invites insanity and suicide ; 
 and makes perfect health impossible. 
 
 + + 
 
 It is more commendable to prevent sickness than to cure it. 
 This is the 2d Ralston Principle. It is explained in chapter 
 xxxiv, as the first duty of a Progressive Ralstonite. 
 
26 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 I 
 
 . Every form of disease has its natural cause and its natural remedy. 
 This is the 3d Ralston Principle. 
 
 tn . 
 
 Where vitality is strong disease is impossible. 
 
 This the 4th Ralston Principle, and is explained under the 
 chapters relating to the First Cardinal Point of Health. 
 
 ^- — T* 
 
 Glame, otherwise known as vitality^ or vital-electricity, is the impulse 
 that builds every perfect particle of the body. 
 
 This is the 5th Ralston Principle. The proper definition of 
 glame is vital strength. Its presence is always attended by an 
 electrical glow of vigor, and this has been called for centuries the 
 "glow of health." 
 
 . tn 
 
 As mechanical electricity may destroy the body itself^ so glame, or 
 vital-electricity, may destroy the germs of disease within the body. 
 
 This is the 6th Ralston Principle. The same vitality that 
 builds the tissue-matter of the body destroys its enemies under 
 certain conditions. 
 
 The body dies in part, and is rebuilt in part, every day ; and its 
 material value is no greater than the value of the food which is eaten. 
 
 This is the 7th Ralston Principle ; and the Second Cardinal 
 Point of Health. 
 
 t 
 
 Activity is necessary to draw the food elements from the blood into 
 the body. 
 
 This the 8th Ralston Principle ; and the Third Cardinal Point 
 of Health. 
 
 t 
 
 i-+ 
 
 Indifference with regard to health leads to stagnation of vitality and 
 consequent disease. 
 
 This is the 9th Ralston Principle. 
 
 t^ 
 
 As the bright sunshine supplies the earth with all vitality, so a bright 
 and sunny disposition invites health to the body. 
 
 This is the 10th Ralston Principle ; and the Fourth Cardinal 
 Point of Health. 
 
27 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISIOK.) 
 
 THE FIRST SEPTEME. 
 
 /|a Nature, gracious mother of us all, 
 ^^ Within thy bosom myria(5 secrets lie 
 
 Which thou surrenderest to the patient eye 
 
 That seeks and waits. 
 
 Margaret J. Preston. 
 
 II ice could knoic vchat Nature is, icc might dicine life's inner life."— Shaftesbury, 
 
 L\TURE is the first septeme. A septeme is one of 
 seven; a seventh of a great body. If man were 
 asked what fact in the world is most potent, he 
 would answer, Nature. A body of seven scientists 
 determined to spend a year in the search for the 
 seven greatest principles of Ufe ; and, to the pleasant surprise of 
 all, there was a unanimity of agreement that Nature was the first 
 and greatest. 
 
 The human body is a temple; it may be made a temple of 
 health or of disease. It goes to pieces just as any house does. You 
 ask how long may a person live ? The answer is, how long will a 
 house last? The body is like a frame-building. The bones are 
 but supporting timbers; the skin but the shelter; the functions 
 but the Hfe within. A house decays by neglect, faster than it 
 wears out by use. So does the body. The house may be a frail 
 one, by reason of being badly built. So the body, built l^y its 
 sickly parents, may start Hfe in poor condition. What wiU you do 
 with the house, if you cannot get another ? Repair and strengthen 
 it. Your body is all you have; but, by a thorough process of 
 repair, you may give it a respectable degree of strength and good 
 appearance. How long will a person live ? How long will your 
 house stand ? 
 
 Care and repair will keep a frame house for seventy, eighty, 
 or even a hundred years. Many persons have lived beyond a 
 hundred. It does- not require much care to keep in health. 
 Probably the Ralston Degree Exercises will do this work efiectu- 
 ally, and they surely do not require much time. The house needs 
 care, and necessity compels a man to keep it up, or be shelterless ; 
 
28 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 but he lets his body go. He feeds his land intelligently with 
 phosphates to get crops ; but never thinks to feed his body with 
 its most urgent foods, to get blood. So the house and land are 
 cared for, but the body goes to rack and ruin. If vermin get 
 into his house, he fights them out ; if bacteria get into the body, 
 he pays no attention to the invasion until something is destroyed, 
 and the misery ^ends only in death. It is an absolute fact that 
 people pay less attention to their health than to that of their 
 horses, dogs, cats and cattle. It is time that the prevention of 
 disease should be taught to everybody ; -and the problems of cure 
 will be lessened. 
 
 Nature is impulse and not material. It is not food, water 
 or oxygen. The body is not nature. The tree is not nature. 
 If you breathe oxygen, and your lungs are not able to absorb it, 
 no good will be done ; the impulse is lacking. Put the best food 
 in the stomach, and if the blood will not assimilate it, the food 
 ferments instead of being digested, and dyspepsia follows. When 
 the impulse of life weakens, sickness follows; when it ceases, 
 death ensues. The vitality is the impulse, and we call it the 
 measure of Nature. Human life is, therefore, a struggle to get 
 food as long as the impulse of living will make use of it. Let 
 either be neglected, and sickness will surely follow. But impulse 
 is the source of all health. 
 
 Medicines are material, and therefore, not Nature. The 
 cure of disease is possible only on some principle that will 
 renew the vitality ; and on some other principle that will feed it. 
 Food and Nature must go hand in hand. It will be interesting, a 
 little later on in this book, to learn what this Nature is, how she 
 may be encouraged, and the simple processes of enlarging her 
 vital energy. The biscuit that you eat has none of it, the dead 
 air in the rooms of your sepulchred house has none of it, the 
 monstrous stupidity of your quiet life and the nervous excitement 
 of your flighty pleasures have none of it. It may be suspected that 
 .Nature shines out of the skies, blooms in the flowers, lurks in 
 the fields, in the morning air, in the glad smile, 
 in the buoyant heart; but we shall see. She is 
 admittedly at the foundation of all life and all 
 health; and here, at the close of this chapter, 
 we lay the corner stone of our temple of health, 
 and the Ralston Club. 
 
29 
 
 CHAPTER VI, 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE SECOND SEPTEME. 
 
 ^f HE brightness of her cheek would shame those stars 
 
 ^^ As daylight doth a lamp ; her eye in heaven, 
 Would through the airy region stream so bright, 
 That birds would sing, and think it were not night. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 "We are licing forms o* oxygen, to lohich all other elements are 
 mereii] incidental."— jSAq/"te«&uri/. 
 
 XYGEN is the second septeme. It is admitted to be 
 one of the seven principles of health ; but its position 
 has been somewhat in dispute. All scientists place 
 Nature at the corner stone, the foundation on which 
 life is built ; but from her wonderful resources, from 
 her many elements, there is one that is more closely allied to 
 human life than all the others combined. So the great majority 
 of biologists agree, and it must be true, that oxygen, this all- 
 pervading essence of the body, is the most important agency, as it 
 is the chief element, in the health of man. 
 
 The world is nine-tenths oxygen. The great oceans con- 
 tain eighty-nine per cent of oxygen. The water you drink 
 is eight -ninths oxygen. The solid matter of the earth is 
 sixty per cent oxygen by weight, and ninety by bulk. If a 
 man weighs 150 pounds, 110 of his weight is oxygen. A per- 
 son carries so great a weight of this one material, that we very 
 naturally ask what it is for ? If his oxygen were set free it would 
 fill 750 cubic feet of space. It is everywhere present, but its sharp 
 and fiery activity would make it dangerous if it were pure. 
 
 W^hat is called fire is but the dangerous activity of oxygen. 
 The flame you see in the lamp is but the union of oxygen with 
 carbon ; the burning being but the dancing of the little particles as 
 the union takes place. Thus oxygen is all activity, all restlessness. 
 Its mission in the world is to change ; it tears down, but only to 
 rebuild. If it destroys by fire it saves all the materials, and 
 quickly uses them to rebuild something else. It is the only 
 builder in the human bod}^, and is man's greatest friend ; for it 
 destroys the bad part of the living tissue, and builds the good. 
 
30 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 What life is may be easily seen. If you light a piece of 
 wood, or paper, or some coal, or oil, or anything containing carbon, 
 it will decompose, or give up its carbon to unite with oxygen. 
 We call this burning. Take the oxygen away, and it will not burn. 
 To prove this, breathe into a tumbler. Your breath contains poi- 
 son. Light a match and hold it in the lower part of the glass ; it 
 will go out. Light another match and hold it in a tumbler into 
 which you have not breathed ; it will burn freely. The gas will 
 not burn in a room where there is no oxygen ; the fire will go out; 
 and every living being will die. If the supply of oxygen were 
 taken away from you for four or five minutes, you would be 
 dead. 
 
 One more problem is presented. If oxygen be abundant 
 and dead, it does but little good. In the first septeme, we learned 
 that Nature is impulse. Oxygen may be present either with or 
 without this vital principle of Nature. If it is charged with the 
 impulse called life, it is fit for breathing ; in other words oxygen 
 must be founded on Nature, not on its mere material force. The 
 truth of this is seen when the chemist attempts to build blood, or 
 to create life. He can get the purest oxygen and all the other 
 elements, but the thing will not live. Oxygen, without the 
 impulse of Nature back of it, is simply a chemical element. 
 
 Common air contains oxygen, but not Nature. It has the 
 chemical element which is capable of keeping the functions of the 
 body in operation ; but it contains only a very slight degree of the 
 vital principle. No matter by what name we call this vital spark, 
 it is known as life, as the agent that makes the body a living 
 creature. Let the heart be stopped for a second ; let the respira- 
 tion cease ; the perfect human form, complete in all its parts, gives 
 up its vital flame, and no art of man can put this impulse back. 
 They tried electricity, thinking it was the secret, at last discovered ; 
 but the muscles only twitched, and the dead felt no throb of the 
 great enginery of his being. There is a great secret behind the 
 materials of the earth, sea, and sky ; a great principle back of 
 existence. We shall gradually come to see what it is. For the 
 present chapter, let us learn to get natural oxygen by getting 
 natural air. 
 
 Re-breathing used air is a double danger. The slimy 
 coated liver, the ulcerous lungs, the bad stomach send forth 
 their poisons ; what do you wish of such air ? and why do you 
 
THE SECOND SEPTEME. 31 
 
 persist in breathing it ? An exhalation, at its best, is intended to 
 carry off the decayed tissues that the body must get rid of; why 
 do you want to take them into your body ? As an experiment, 
 take a glass jar and breathe gently into it, until it is full of your 
 breath; then cork it lightly. After a while go to it, and the 
 decomposed animal matter in the bottle will give out a very offen- 
 sive odor. Yet you are re-breathing your breath continually ; and 
 re-breathing the exhalations of other people. 
 
 Life depends upon oxygen and must have it. Refuse it, 
 or re-breathe air, or stay in a room where the dead air is not 
 changed, and the blood stagnates, the muscles put on a tired feel- 
 ing, due solely to this one cause, and cured, not by medicine, but 
 by natural oxygen ; the heart acts slowly ; the impulse of digestion 
 is withdrawn, and the food may ferment in the stomach or pass 
 through unused ; the blood clogs the brain and the head begins to 
 ache; the dead tissues throughout the body, instead of being 
 carried off by the exhalations, are collected in every nook and 
 corner, where they become a fertile soil in which disease thrives; 
 sores, ulcers, tumors, cancers even, may follow, but catarrh of the 
 nose, throat, air passages, or other parts will most surely result. 
 Ralstonism differs somewhat from medicine. Physiology 
 says that oxygen is needed by the lungs ; Ralstonism says that 
 vital oxygen, such as we get from fresh air charged with Nature, 
 is more beneficial to the lungs. Medicine says that oxygen, 
 collected in a tank and inhaled through a rubber tube, should be 
 taken. Ralstonism goes to the fountain head, to the source of 
 life ; and many years of experience, crowned with success in all 
 giving health to thousands of believers, have placed the eternal 
 stamp of truth on Nature and her simple methods. " Come with 
 me, hand in hand with Nature and with Ralston, and let us 
 drink deep of the fountain of life." We will go 
 together, and while you w^alk the path of better 
 health we will guide your steps, and see that you 
 do not fail. Disease is not an accident. For every 
 pain you suffer there is a plain and absolute cause. 
 This chapter, important as it is, deals with but 
 one subject, and that is oxygen. We seek only 
 the kind that is founded on Nature, and in building 
 the great pillar which is to support the temple of 
 health, we put this second stone in place. 
 
32 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE THIRD SEPTEME. 
 
 W 
 
 EMP'RATE in every place,— abroad, at home, 
 Thence will applause, and hence will profit come ; 
 And health from either— he in time prepares 
 For sickness, age, and their attendant cares. 
 
 Crabbe. 
 
 "Temperaments diMcr as do minds and iaces. "Sha/tesbury. 
 
 EMPERATION is the third septeme. This word is 
 coined. It is not found in the dictionary. It does 
 not refer to temperance, except in the general sense ; 
 but more to temperament, temper and harmony in 
 health. It comes from the old Latin root-word 
 tempuSj meaning time ; and probably implies two things — to give 
 proper time to every act, and to suit the act to the time of doing 
 it. From the first we see the meaning of moderation, or care to 
 avoid either extreme; and from the second, the meaning of 
 harmony, or temperament. Both ideas are contained in the word 
 temperation ; and, if we were asked to define it in a nut shell, we 
 should say that temperation meant to consult your temperament 
 in all that you do, and to avoid doing anything in extremes. 
 
 As a doctrine of health, temperation becomes most im- 
 portant. It is not only one of the septems, or seven doctrines 
 of health; but it is the first recognition of the individual person. 
 Nature, the first septeme, is the foundation of all life, animal as 
 well as vegetable; oxygen, the second septeme, is the foundation of 
 animal life only. Human beings must breathe oxygen to live; 
 vegetation must breathe carbonic acid to live. What man exhales 
 feeds the plant; what the plant exhales feeds man. Therefore, 
 while Nature is for all, oxygen is for part, and temperation is for 
 the individual. It is the third step in the process of life. All 
 men are not alike. We will not undertake to state, in this volume, 
 the origin of the races, tribes and temperaments, as such history 
 would be out of place in a health book; but advanced Ralstonites 
 will find the whole matter discussed in their School of Philosophy, 
 in the volume called Our Existences. It is a well known fact that 
 there are five great separable races of mankind. 
 
THE THIRD SEPT EM E. 33 
 
 Your temperament is not like that of your neighbor ; and 
 perhaps not like that of any member of your family. You belong 
 to the Caucasian race, the greatest of earth, and differ from other 
 peoples in this general respect; but you differ, also, from the 
 members of your own race in your individual temperament. 
 Your disposition is either distinctly one-sided, or many-sided ; in 
 any case it is tempered by your temperament, and thereby you 
 become 3'ourself, apart from others. There are classes of people, 
 to one of which you belong. The doctor may call you a person 
 of sanguine temperament, or osseous, lymphatic, melancholic, 
 executive, hysterical, mental, visceral or aesthetic. These divi- 
 sions are correct ; but Ralstonism places you in one of a number 
 of special classes, with the particular object in view of suiting 
 everything to your inherited temperament. 
 
 The same treatment that helps another may not help you. 
 Physicians know how true this is ; and, while blindly recognizing 
 the fact that the medicine which cures some other patient, may 
 do you no good, are hopelessly at sea in the application of their 
 knowledge; for the books of medicine are sadly silent on this 
 exact phase of life. It is even true in the matter of foods. A 
 few years ago the Ralston Club was blamed for asserting that the 
 same foods are not equally beneficial to all temperaments; but 
 the fact is now amply tested. Ralstonism claims that the foods, 
 the medicines, and the conditions of life must conform to the 
 individual nature of each man or woman. Thus temperament 
 is a factor in every case of sickness, as well as in the main- 
 tenance of health. What this means will be seen as our chap- 
 ters unfold the simple story of Ralstonism. The law of harmony 
 is the keynote of temperament, and is the first part of temper- 
 ation: whatever you do, avoid conflict with your inherited 
 temperament, unless it leads yoa into a surly, ugly, dishonest or 
 criminal disposition; in which case you should fly to the School 
 of Character. 
 
 Extremes are dangerous in all things. Excesses are 
 extremes of violence; inaction is the extreme of moderation. 
 The lazy person cannot take in much oxygen ; and the avenues 
 and channels of the body become filled with the soil that should 
 have been excreted or breathed out. This soil is a mass of dead 
 tissues, dead flesh, dead earth. This is the extreme of moderation. 
 Of course you are not lazy ; but, perhaps, you may have some 
 
34 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 acquaintance who would take lesson from this brief summary of 
 one of the most fruitful causes of disease. 
 
 Calmness never does injury, and temperation invites this 
 most excellent quality. It is acquired as a habit, and chiefly by 
 a course of regime or practice designed to develop it. Man is a 
 three-part creature: he has a body, whose physical tendency is 
 undoubtedly animal, if left to itself; he has a mind, whose scope 
 is contained in the area between the fool and the sage ; he has a 
 soul that is capable of the lowest evil or the highest good. How 
 often the ambitious boy or man has sought great physical prowess 
 by extreme efforts that brought on consumption ! The gymnasium 
 and the violence of the athletic field have sent thousands to the 
 consumptives' graves ; simply because the tissues of the lungs are 
 broken down by extreme exercise. How often the ambitious stu- 
 dent or thinker has brought on nervous prostration by excessive 
 brain work! How often the third part, the heart or emotional 
 nature, has been excessively exercised ! Extreme joy and sorrow, 
 and extreme religious devotions, have developed insanity. 
 
 To illustrate intemperation, take the case of the bank cashier 
 who, in attempting to quell a little fire, exerted himself too much 
 and fell dead of heart disease. A personal friend of the author's, 
 ran violently to overtake a street car; when he reached it, he 
 entered as usual and took a seat in the corner. The conductor 
 called for his ticket and extended his hand to a dead man. 
 Excessive thinking on one subject has ruined the minds of many 
 otherwise capable men and women. Examinations at school, if 
 too difficult, are not advisable. The body keeps pace 
 with its uses ; deficient use leads to rust and decay ; 
 excessive use tears away and breaks down the fibers 
 that support the organs. The chain, by constant use, 
 is kept bright and free from rust ; by over-straining, 
 is broken ; by neglect, falls apart from decay : so does 
 the body. There should be no extremes. The law 
 of temperation applies even to its own first division, 
 or temperament. Violence of anger has killed many 
 a man and woman. Keep the temper even. As the 
 third step from the material earth, through Nature 
 as general life, and oxygen as physical life, we come 
 to the individual in the law of temperation, and place 
 this as the third stone in our column of health. 
 
85 
 
 CHAPTEB Till 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE FOURTH SEPTEME. 
 
 /|XOD made thee perfect, not immutable ; 
 ^^ And good he made thee, but to persevere 
 
 He left it in thy power; ordained thy will 
 
 Bv nature free, not over-ruled by fate. 
 
 Milt&n. 
 
 " Resolution is a throne of strength, and ecenj man and tcoman icho sits thereon, 
 an imperial monarch." — Shafte^ury. 
 
 jTREXGTH is the fourth septeme. It is one of the 
 seven doctrines of health. Its position was unani- 
 mously agreed upon as the center of the column, the 
 natural place for the idea of power, as it then exerts 
 its influence more accurately and easily to all parts. 
 A man stands in the position of greatest strength when his sup- 
 port is central ; that is, when the line of gravity runs through the 
 center of his body. 
 
 The meaning of strength is not merely muscular, for that 
 kind of power is feeble compared with the impulse of Nature ; 
 and this brings us back to our first septeme. There we learned 
 that Nature consisted of growth and impulse ; that growth was 
 accidental and therefore imperfect, and that impulse was perfect in 
 itself. Take a familiar illustration. It is quite natural to grow if 
 we eat food ; but many persons eat good food and do not even keep 
 well. Their stomach will not digest it. The impulse of Nature, 
 called vital strength, or merely strength as we call it in Ralstonism, 
 is too weak to assimilate even the best food ; and so it is called a 
 weak stomach. 
 
 Weak lungs cannot easily digest pure air, for the impulse is 
 lacking. Here we come to the very pith of Ralstonism. It must 
 be borne in mind that there are but two ways of feeding the body ; 
 by the stomach, for solids and liquids, and bj^ the lungs for air. 
 Two passages lead fi*om the mouth into the body : the windpipe 
 into the lungs, the food-pipe into the stomach. The stomach 
 receives the materials to be used in building the body ; the air, 
 entering the lungs, carries the builder itself. We have learned 
 that oxygen is a builder and a destroyer ; it tears down the tissues 
 (carbonizes or bums them) and immediately rebuilds new ones by 
 
86 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 taking the material (food) which the blood carries from the heart 
 to every part of the body. 
 
 The law of strength is learned by examining the law of 
 impulse. We feed the stomach with food, and the lungs with air. 
 The food must be digested by the impulse of the organic life of 
 the stomach, which is really the blood around the stomach. The 
 opposite is true of the lungs, for there the air will not be well 
 digested unless it (the air itself) contains the impulse. This 
 apparently reverse order of things is really harmonious. The 
 •stomach must furnish the strength to digest the food ; but the air 
 must furnish its own strength, in order to be digested. To show 
 the harmony of this process we find that the strength of the 
 stomach comes from the vital strength of the blood, and this gets 
 its energy from the vital oxygen in natural air. It is a chain of 
 influence, traceable back to not only pure air, but vital oxygen ; 
 not the oxygen of the chemist, or of the closed rooms, or of the 
 sleeping chamber, but of moving air vitalized by Nature. 
 
 The test of this doctrine is its universal truth under all 
 circumstances ; from the many experiments of the early laboratory 
 to the application of the great process in the saving of human life. 
 The three most common of all maladies are dyspepsia, colds, and 
 catarrh : the former is due to lack of vitality in the blood, or to a 
 stomach ruined by medicines. Colds and catarrh 
 are traceable to deposits of soil, or dead tissues, which 
 clog the system, and accumulate until a fever or 
 inflammation seeks to throw them off, although other 
 immediate causes intervene. As a test of the efficacy 
 of Ralstonism apply this principle to these common 
 maladies ; preventing them, or curing them if in light 
 degree, by the exercises of this volume ; or, if chronic, 
 by the special treatments in the book of complete 
 membership. The impulse of the body is its vital 
 strength. The heart is strong or weak ; the stomach 
 is strong or weak ; the lungs, brain, nerves, blood, are 
 strong or weak, just in proportion as the vitality, the 
 spark of life, is strong or weak. As the central doc- 
 trine of health, the vitality of the body should be 
 cultivated until it has acquired its fullness of strength, 
 and then disease will be impossible. We put strength 
 in the column as the central stone. 
 
37 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE FIFTH SEPTEME. 
 
 ®HERE is a day of sunny rest 
 For every dark and troubled night; 
 And grief may hide an evening guest, 
 But joy shall come with early light. 
 
 Bryant. 
 
 "An honest face, lihe an honest floicer, lores the light."— S/ia/te^&wrj/. 
 
 IGHT is the fifth septeme. It has some relation to the 
 source of life. We are all agreed that, if the sunlight 
 were withdrawn, all things would die; but, at first 
 thought, this would seem to be due to the absence of 
 heat. Scientists are unanimous the world over in the 
 belief that something more than heat comes to the earth in the 
 form of sunshine. The sun is the source of three great powers: 
 light, heat, and vitality. This is proved not only in the animal, 
 but in the vegetable world. Laying aside the fact, known to all, 
 that excessive sunheat is more than man can stand, even as too 
 much oxygen in the composition of the air produces too much 
 activity and endangers the machinery of life ; we will show the 
 necessity of light by stating the result of darkness. 
 
 Life and light are related as steam and heat are related. One 
 is the effect of the other. Had there never been any light, no mat- 
 ter how perfectly the heat might be adjusted, there could never be 
 any life. The sight is the first to be affected by this source of 
 power. People whose eyes are most exposed to the full bright 
 light, not in excess, have the strongest eyesight ; those who use the 
 eyes but little, lose their vigor of sight ; those who keep in dark 
 rooms have weak eyes ; and cave-dwellers become blind after a 
 certain length of time. The curious effect of darkness upon the 
 vegetable world is in itself a clear lesson on this subject. As we 
 have learned, plants should absorb the carbonic acid which animal 
 life (by this we mean man as well) exhales ; but in the night time 
 the plants do not do this. They reverse their process in dark 
 rooms by day, and always in the night, by inhaling oxygen, 
 needed by man, and exhaling carbonic acid, which is poisonous to 
 man. Darkness is a slow poison to plants. 
 
88 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 It is healthful to be in a bright room, not necessarily sunny, 
 with plants or vegetation, during the day ; for these plants give 
 out vital oxygen for man to use ; and they drink in the poison of 
 his breath. All moving air in the daytime, and for a while after 
 dark if out of doors, carries this vital oxygen from vegetation, 
 unless the plants have been growing in shady corners or in dark 
 and dingy nooks. No weeds should be permitted to exist in 
 neglected corners or hidden places. Their life is the reverse of the 
 law of Nature. It is not healthful to be in a shady room by day, 
 with plants ; nor to spend the night with any form of vegetation. 
 If a person must live in dingy rooms, it is best to open the windows 
 often, stand at it or put the head out and get a long deep breath of 
 moving air, every fifteen minutes or so. But the bright light is 
 better ; it is food to the brain and heart, and it alone furnishes the 
 impulse that enters at the lungs and feeds every nerve, fiber, and 
 blood-vessel in the body. 
 
 An eminent scientist, Draper, says: "Though the air 
 is dependent for the renewal of its oxygen on the action of the 
 green leaves of plants, it must not be forgotten that it is only in the 
 presence and under the stimulus of light that these organisms 
 decompose carbonic acid. All plants, irrespective of their kind or 
 nature, absorb oxygen and exhale carbonic acid in the dark." 
 Another great investigator, Robert Hunt, in his Poetry of Science 
 says: "Light is an essential element in producing the grand 
 phenomena of life. Where there is light, there is life, and any 
 deprivation of this principle is rapidly followed by disease of the 
 animal frame, and the destruction of the mental faculties. We 
 have proof of this in the squalor of those whose necessities compel 
 them to remain in places where sunshine never penetrates, and 
 where everything necessary for health, except light, is had." 
 George Kennan, in the Century Magazine for March, 1888, writes of 
 one who told him of his life in a dark casement of a fortress in 
 Siberia : " Before the end of the first year, I grew so weak, men- 
 tally and physically, that I began to forget words. * * * I greatly 
 feared insanity, and my apprehension was increased by the fact 
 that two or three of my comrades in cells on the same corridor 
 were either insane or subject to hallucinations." We know two 
 sisters who spent all their time indoors, with the curtains drawn. 
 They were secluding themselves from the world because of the 
 death of their mother. They went out in the evening to get the 
 
THE FIFTH SEPT EM E. 
 
 30 
 
 i«; 
 
 E 
 
 air and to exercise ; but the exclusion of light brought on insan- 
 ity, where no trace ever existed before. 
 
 By experiments as well as by observation, the proof of the 
 sun's vital power has been clearly established. Many investigators 
 go so far as to even claim that electricity and magnetism are 
 derived from the sun's rays. For the present purpose it is imma- 
 terial whether so much is true or not ; we are certain that Nature 
 is either derived from or vitaUzed by the sunlight, and that no 
 other light can take its place. It is a most curious study to 
 analyze the ray of sunlight in connection with some of the best 
 scientific literature on the subject. One class of investigators will 
 impress us with the belief that the rays are dancing molecules or 
 atoms that have an energy which is imparted to the substance 
 that blocks the light or absorbs it. And others advance the theory 
 of an energy that vibrates the ray, or a line of ether that is like 
 a wave of the ocean. At all events we know there is energy, 
 and we desire to secure it. Those, therefore, who prize health, 
 must place themselves in harmony with Nature. Seek the light, 
 the daylight, and indirectly the sunlight. It is not 
 necessary to come in contact with the rays them- 
 selves. Nature teaches temperation in the use of oxy- 
 gen, for in the purest air, only about one-fifth is 
 oxygen, this amount being diluted in nitrogen; so 
 the sunshine itself may be too hot or too intense. 
 To be near it may be sufficient. To be at a window, 
 but out of the direct rays in summer, or on the 
 street in the shadow of the buildings, or in the fields 
 beneath the shade-trees, will give you the efiects of 
 sunlight. The light is even in the bright shadows. 
 
 The secret is a simple one. Wherever mo\dng 
 air, on which the sun has just been shining, can be 
 found, there is vitalized oxygen, and the source of 
 human health, energy, strength, mental vigor and a 
 happy disposition. Nature is the foundation ; oxygen 
 is the vital force ; temperation the rule of individual 
 growth ; strength the central law ; and light the sup- 
 ply and renewer of all these energies. For this 
 reason, in rearing the column that shall become the 
 universal support of the temple of health, we place 
 light in the fifth position. 
 
 ^^ah-ji*^ 
 
 '^i:3ri 
 
 id^ 
 
 
 %^k 
 
40 
 
 CHAPTEB X. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE SIXTH SEPTEME. 
 
 M*HO hath not heard the rich complain 
 
 *^ Of surfeits, and corporeal pain ? 
 
 He, barred from every nse of wealth, 
 Envies the ploughman's strength and health. 
 
 Gay. 
 
 "Death is rest, and life is action."— Shaftesbury. 
 
 CTIVITY is the sixth septeme. The sources of life are 
 Nature, by reason of necessity ; oxygen, as the builder 
 or rather changer of the structure of the body ; tem- 
 peration as the care of the individual ; strength as the 
 degree of vital intensity ; and light as the renewer of 
 the vital flame. In order to put these forces into operation a 
 further principle of health is necessary, and that is the activity of 
 the being. Action is not the first law of life, but is as essential 
 as the first ; for a force cannot operate if it does not become active. 
 Inactivity is impossible, if by it we mean perfect stillness. 
 It is possible that some worn out planet may be in complete 
 quietude ; but the ice-fields of earth, the soil, the rocks and all 
 that makes up the crust of this world, are scenes of constant 
 molecular movement. A man asleep is full of activity : the 
 heart is the most powerful engine for its size ever invented ; tlie 
 lungs^ the stomach, the myriad vesicles, the fibers, tissues, cells 
 and atomic chemistry of the wonderful body, are ever as busy as 
 engines and machinery can be ; and the whole scene presents the 
 idea of a great factory working day and night, year in and 3'ear 
 out, with millions of workmen in hundreds of departments hurry- 
 ing to do the special work assigned them. 
 
 The art of living is the art of keeping active. He who is 
 more active in his muscles than another, lives more and grows 
 more in his physical nature ; he who is more active in his brain, 
 lives more in his mental nature ; and he who is more active in his 
 heart, lives more in his moral nature ; and that person who, tem- 
 pered by moderation, brings the activity of body, mind and heart 
 to bear in equal proportions upon the art of living, is the complete 
 
THE SIXTH SEPTEME. 
 
 41 
 
 human being. Your degree of life is measured by your activity. 
 Health in one department is affected by the activity of another. 
 The regular use of the mind has an influence over the body; and 
 this is called mental ambition. The activity of the moral nature 
 gives a finer glow to the blood than even physical exercise. 
 
 Activity includes exercise, but the latter is much more 
 restricted, although a larger form of action. Exercise is mechan- 
 ical and voluntary. Activity within is natural and involuntary, 
 except in so far as we feed it. It also includes, beside exercise 
 which is outward, three species : heat, magnetism, and impulse. 
 Heat is the constant commotion of the particles, whereby the 
 proper materials are selected for the tissues of the body. Magnet- 
 ism is the nerve fluid which feeds thought, feeling and action, and 
 dwells in the nervous system. Impulse is the ^dtal spark, called 
 Nature, which makes heat live, and magnetism 
 human, instead of mechanical. To sum up, we 
 find that activity is outward and inward. When 
 outward, it is called exercise; when inward, it is 
 heat, magnetism and impulse ; or movement, nerve- 
 strength and vitality. 
 
 The heat of the blood is a thermometer of 
 motion only ; it merely tells us whether the composed 
 mass is sufficiently active to sustain life. But heat 
 itself is nothing but an agent, a servant. For this 
 reason it is kept in balance. It should be maintained 
 at an even degree, as steam is kept at a regular press- 
 ure. But magnetism or nerv^e-strength, may be 
 increased to its utmost degree, and greater health 
 come*from it; although it is chiefly the health of 
 brain and nerves. So the impulse of life is capable 
 of a remarkable growth under proper culture. In 
 the healthy child, fresh from the hands of its Creator, 
 this impulse is most vigorous; but the youthful 
 activity grows less as it is brought under restraint 
 and the influence of languor. The inactive child is 
 diseased. Proneness to lassitude is an unhealthful 
 condition of muscle, nerve or impulse. Because of 
 its importance it is given a lofty position in the pillar 
 whose combined strength is to support the temple 
 ,^5^ . ' ^ JM of health. 
 
 P^^^ 
 
 m^3-. 
 
 ,0 
 
42 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE SEVENTH SEPTEME. 
 
 m 
 
 O duty could overtask him, 
 
 No need his will outrun; 
 Or ever our lips could ask him, 
 
 His hands the work had done. 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 ' Regime is a duty ichich loc otoe to Nature." — Shaftesbury. 
 
 ^EGIME is the seventh septeme. It occupies the 
 proud position of being at the top of the column; 
 and very naturally comes in contact with the temple 
 it supports. In fact, it is the only one of the seven 
 doctrines of health that touches the building itself. 
 So in the practice of the great principles of life, regime is the 
 only means of giving expression to the laws of being. This 
 is true in study: a regularity of habit makes the scholar. It is 
 true in diet: a regularity imparts health. It is true in exercise, 
 in breathing as an art, in daily habits, and in the management of 
 life itself 
 
 But its chief value is in the classing together of special 
 exercises for special purposes. The acquisition of health, after 
 disease gains entrance to the body, is no easy task. Its preserva- 
 tion, before disease secures its fateful grip, is quite simple. It 
 requires a person of some character to conclude that it is better to 
 prevent disease than to let the body go to rack^and ruin and then 
 attempt to restore what might have been easily retained, but now 
 is likely to evade all but the most strenuous efforts. In other 
 words, prevention is better than cure. The problem of the age is, 
 not so much how the sick may be made well, but how the well 
 may be induced to avoid sickness. 
 
 In either case regime is necessary. It is necessary in health 
 in order to keep well. It is more necessary in sickness in order 
 to get well. What, you exclaim, shall a man who is not sick diet 
 himself? The word diet does not mean what people choose to 
 think it does. You may have a fine horse ; it thrives on hay and 
 grain ; you give it tacks and sawdust ; when you cease to abuse it, 
 
THE SEVENTH SEPTEME. 43 
 
 you diet your horse. Diet means a little common sense used as a 
 guide to the use of the stomach. If you have a fertile garden or 
 farm, are you going to exhaust its vitality by an abuse of the com- 
 mon sense laws of land culture? People feed their lands, put 
 millions of dollars worth of fertilizers on it every season, and 
 even have an exact regime for all the animals they raise. Are 
 land and animals more valuable than humanity ? As a result of 
 this barbarism, of this lack of regime, nearly every man and 
 woman on earth is in imperfect health. The effect has its cause. 
 
 It is not tiresome to have a regime of your own. It is a 
 pleasure. The idea seems tiresome as you read it ; for you have 
 never tried it ; but the practice of the regime is most pleasant. At 
 first you may say, Ralstonism has too much to it; it requires too 
 much time. This is not true. If one is in good health, a simple 
 system of daily care, so easily learned and so harmonious that it 
 becomes very soon an unconscious part of your life, w411 suffice. 
 If you are not in good health, Ralstonism is no more a pleasure to 
 you than any other attempt to get health would be. Its only 
 advantage is, that it brings you back to health if such a thing is 
 possible. But the regime of a general member is only the practice 
 of the pleasant art of living pleasantly. 
 
 For each day a certain degree of care should be exercised; 
 but it becomes a positive enjoyment, and even increases the exhil- 
 aration of the health you already possess. Perhaps on Ralston 
 Day the regime is more exacting ; but, even then, this is a free 
 country and you are not obliged to observe the day. The duties 
 of the club are not forced upon you. There is no compulsion in 
 any part of the work. The very essence of Ralstonism is common 
 sense ; and the club appeals to you as a thinking being to do what 
 is most beneficial to yourself and to others ; and if your good 
 judgment is thus aroused to act, there is no step in the whole 
 course of Ralstonism that can be called irksome. You are invited 
 to partake of its freedom, and to freely decide to accept any or all 
 of its regimes; particularly that of Ralston Day. For each 
 important degree there is a special and favorite code of practice. 
 Thus, as a general Ralstonite, you may practice the very simple 
 regime and very simple exercises that apply to your general stand- 
 ing. If you decide to become a progressive Ralstonite you will 
 commence to take degrees. Your Inside Membership is the first 
 degree ; and, as a first-degree member, you may adopt the regime 
 
44 
 
 THE RylLSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 m,^>)^ 
 
 and exercise suitable to that stage of your advance. Then comes 
 the Complete Membership, with an entirely different purpose and 
 a different regime. A club of fifth-degree members, generally a 
 private club which any one may organize, is found in nearly all 
 towns and cities ; and in their meetings they often vary their exer- 
 cises with the use they make of the different degrees. 
 
 Regime includes the general use of air, water and food as a 
 means of preserving the health ; and the special use as a means of 
 curing disease. It also includes a code of activity ; first, as exercise, 
 to develop muscular health ; second, as magnetism, to 
 develop nerve-strength; third, as glame to develop 
 the resources of vitality, known as Nature. Yet in 
 these divisions and departments the process is always 
 as simple as it is to go to a window, raise the sash, 
 and inhale a large, full, deep draught of fresh air. 
 To a lazy person such a slight thing is obnoxious. 
 Laziness is a disease ; you may have it not ; but if it 
 ever comes your way, you may know it from the fact 
 that when you are in a comfortable position you will 
 not wish to change it ; and some people are too lazy 
 even to get up out of an uncomfortable position. It 
 is said that animals love rest so much, except when 
 hungry, that they would sleep themselves into 
 animal decomposition, if it were not for the insects 
 by night and by day that torment them into 
 action. 
 
 Your body, containing flesh, thought and feel- 
 ing, is a temple of health, having three stories, mind, 
 soul and physical life. This temple has four walls, 
 which extend to its full height in all the stories. On 
 every side, in the very structure of the walls, and 
 supporting the whole magnificent temple, are pillars, 
 one hundred in number, each made of the same 
 material, of seven distinctly different kinds of stone, 
 representing the quarries from which they are taken, 
 real stone they are in vital quality ; and their com- 
 bined structure, by the philosophy of design or the 
 accident of fate, presents the tower of life, bearing 
 the separate initials of the seven doctrines of health, 
 and spelling the name Ralston. 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 'J^fi^y^': 
 
 mmm(' 
 
45 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 CHANCES OF LIFE 
 
 3^9" HAT is the worst of woes that wait on age? 
 -*** What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? 
 To view each loved one blotted from life's page, 
 And be alone on earth as I am now. 
 
 Bi/ron. 
 
 "If I could lice all I irould like, I icould lice three lices; my first tcould be in the 
 country, my second in the city, and my third around the Qlobe/'—Shajtesbury. 
 
 person in the possession of full vigor and enjoyment 
 of life wishes to die. Those who seek destruction are 
 generally insane or morbidly discouraged. Some are 
 " willing to go " if relief from the cares and sufferings 
 of this existence may be obtained. But the possession 
 of all the faculties of body and mind, attended by an 
 enjoyment of living, can only inspire all human beings with a 
 tenacious desire to prolong life to the utmost length. Old people 
 think of their many years and expect soon to pass away. In 
 most persons this one thought is constantly in mind and it hastens 
 the breaking down of the faculties, and actually brings on prema- 
 ture old age, decrepitude and death. Here we have a good illus- 
 tration of the power of the Fourth Point of Health, and of the effect 
 of. its non-observance. 
 
 The most interesting experiment that a man could make 
 would be to test the possibilities of a long life. The body, mind 
 and nerves are subjected to constant abuse, and give way in time 
 to disease. 1. Until recently no scientific attempt has ever been 
 made to draw'GLAME into the system. 2. Four-fifths of the food 
 taken into the stomach is injurious. 3. Exercise is either omitted 
 or forced, or taken by gymnasium methods; all of which produce 
 short lives. 4. Cheerfulness is never cultivated; and irritability 
 increases with advancing years. We declare that in the life of 
 any man or woman who belongs to the first class of Ralstonites 
 (and all should be in this class sooner or later) an extreme age 
 may be reached without the decrepitude that ordinarily attends 
 it, if such person will give ordinary attention only to the Four 
 Points of Health. 
 
46 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 The principles of health are observed in greater or less 
 degree by many men and women who attain a great age without 
 applying the doctrines scientifically; as they know nothing of 
 them except in a rude way. We have met hundreds of people 
 over seventy, many over eighty, and a few above ninety : in every 
 instance where we have inquired, and we have done this often, the 
 early life had been spent in the open air, and the love of Nature, 
 being thus acquired, had followed through the after years. 
 Necessity furnished regime, and ambition, humble but intense, 
 had fired the blood. Often by mere accident of circumstances a 
 long life has been due to a blind acquiescence in the principles of 
 health. Many fabulous accounts are found concerning longevity ; 
 but some reports are records, both authentic and accepted without 
 the possibility of doubt. Laying aside the great ages mentioned 
 in the Bible, as belonging to a different era, we come down to the 
 present period and find ample evidence of extreme age. 
 
 Regime will restore a broken constitution. Urdini, a Count 
 of the last century, who, at the age of thirty-nine had ruined his 
 health by dissipation, was told by his physician that he must die 
 in less than a year. He consulted all the men of learning of that 
 age, but all agreed that his constitution was ruined, and had 
 not sufficient vitality left to sustain life much longer. An old 
 Alchemist, who had studied the circulation of the blood, dis- 
 covered that it fed on two unknown powers ; one he described as 
 the breath of life (corresponding probably to the recently discovered 
 glame), and the other he described as a good disposition or "active 
 cheerfulness." These two powers digested food and made blood ; 
 while exercise gave strength. Here we find the Four Points of 
 Health unconsciously discovered by a now unknown Alchemist of 
 the last century, and adopted by the Count Urdini. He resolved 
 to recuperate his lost health, to regenerate his blood, to rebuild 
 his body and — to live ! In three years he was a new man ; he 
 lived to a good old age, and died at ninety-eight. 
 
 From authentic records we present a list of long-lived 
 people. For these facts we are indebted to other works, reports 
 and records. 
 
 " J. E. Worcester, LL.D., gives a list of ninety-eight persons 
 in New Hampshire, with the date of their deaths, which occurred 
 within the period of ninety -three years, ending in 1824, all of 
 whom were one hundred or more years old, besides six others, the 
 
CHANCES OF LIFE. 47 
 
 dates of whose deaths were unknown, the eldest of whom was one 
 hundred and twenty. Dr. Worcester gives a table, beginnmg in 
 1808 and ending in 1821, exhibiting a list of one hundred and 
 thirty -two persons in the United States who had attained the age 
 of one hundred and ten years or upwards ; three at one hundred 
 and thirty, three at one hundred and thirty-four ; one at one hun- 
 dred and thirty-five ; two at one hundred and thirty-six ; one at 
 one hundred and thirty -seven ; one at one hundred and forty -two; 
 one at one hundred and forty-three ; one at one hundred and fifty 
 years of age." 
 
 " There were in the United States, in 1850, two thousand. five 
 hundred and fifty-five persons over one hundred years of age, 
 which would make about one person in every nine thousand. In 
 the beginning of the year 1858, there were in the New England 
 States, four clergymen, all educated at Darmouth College, each of 
 whom was one hundred years old." 
 
 A very interesting case is that of Metlin, and the records 
 are fully verified by the local reports. 
 
 " Robert Metlin died in 1787, at the age of one hundred and 
 fifteen. He lived for some time at Portsmouth, and followed the 
 occupation of a baker. He was a great pedestrian. He usually 
 bought his flour in Boston and traveled thither on foot. He per- 
 formed the journey in a day, the distance being then about sixty- 
 six miles, made his purchases, put his flour on board a coaster, and 
 returned home the next day. He was eighty years of age the last 
 time he performed this journey. At that time this was thought an 
 extraordinary day's journey for a horse. The stage-coaches 
 required the greater part of two days. Colonel Atkinson, with a 
 strong horse and a very light sulky, once accomplished it in a day. 
 He set out early in the morning, and before he reached Greenland 
 overtook Metlin, and inquired where he was bound. Metlin 
 answered to Boston. Atkinson asked if he ever expected to reach 
 there, and drove on. Atkinson stopped at Greenland, and Metlin 
 passed him ; they alternately passed each other at every stage on 
 the road, and crossed Charlestown ferry in the same boat before 
 sunset." 
 
 Greater ages have been attained in Europe than in this 
 country. Peter Zarten, near Temesvar, in Hungary, died January 
 5, 1724, at the age of one hundred and eighty-five. Henry Jen- 
 kins, of Yorkshire, England, lived to be eight score and nine, or 
 
48 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 one hundred and sixty -nine years of age. Thomas Parr, of Shrop- 
 shire, England, died in 1636, aged one hundred and fifty-two years 
 and nine months. He was twice married ; the first time at eighty, 
 the second time at one hundred and twenty years ; he had offspring 
 by each marriage. Nina Zahn, near Berlin, died at the age of one 
 hundred and forty -one, having never tasted meat in her life, nor 
 used beer. 
 
 "John Rovin and his wife, of Temesvar, Hungary, died 1741, 
 he in his one hundred and seventy-second year, she in her one 
 hundred and sixty-fourth, having lived together, man and wife, 
 one hundred and forty-seven years. He was married at the age of 
 twenty-five and his wife at the age of seventeen." 
 
 " The Hon. Mrs. Watkins, of Glamorganshire, visited London 
 at the age of one hundred and ten, the last year of her life, to wit= 
 ness one of the performances of Mrs. Siddons. She ascended the 
 many flights of steps, which lead to the whispering dome of St. 
 Paul's. The last forty years of her life, Mrs. W. is said to have 
 lived exclusively on potatoes." 
 
 " Henry Francisco, born in France, died near Whitehall, N. Y., 
 in October, 1824, in his one hundred and thirty-fifth year." Dr. 
 Mussey, formerly a professor of anatomy and surgery at Dart- 
 mouth College, says that John Gilley, born in the County of Cork, 
 Ireland, in 1690, died at Augusta, Me., July, 1813, aged one hun^ 
 dred and twenty-three. "I saw him," says Dr. Mussey, "after 
 sunset of a cold evening in December at the age of about one 
 hundred and eighteen. At that time he took the whole care of the 
 cattle at his barn, and cut all the wood for the fire in his house. 
 He lived a bachelor till he was between seventy and eighty, when 
 he was married to a girl of eighteen. They had eight children 
 who had gone out into the world to seek their fortune, leaving the 
 old folks to take care of the homestead." 
 
 " William Scoby, a native of Ireland, died in Londonderry, 
 N. H., at the age of one hundred and ten years. When he was 
 one hundred years of age he traveled on foot from Londonderry to 
 Portsmouth, more than thirty-five miles in one day." 
 
 In distant times and climes many cases of extreme age 
 are recorded as facts. " According to Pliny, in the year 76 of the 
 Christian Era, from a taxing of Vespasian it was estimated that 
 between the Apennies and the Po, there were living one hundred 
 and twenty-four persons one hundred years old or upwards; viz.: 
 
CHANCES OF LIFE. 49 
 
 fifty -four of one hundred years ; fifty -seven of one hundred and 
 ten years; two of one hundred and twenty-five years; four of one 
 hundred and thirty; four of one hundred and thirty-five years; 
 and three of one hundred and forty. Besides these, Parma had 
 five, whereof three fulfilled one hundred and twenty, and two, 
 one hundred and thirty ; Brussels had one of one hundred and 
 twenty-five; Placentia one of one hundred and thirty-one; 
 Faventio one woman of one hundred and thirty-two; a certain 
 town then called Velleiacium, situated in the hills about Placentia, 
 afforded ten, whereof six fulfilled one hundred and ten years of 
 age, four, one hundred and tw^enty ; lastly Rimino, one of- one 
 hundred and fifty years, whose name was Marcus Apponius." 
 
 '• Captain Riley, in the Journal of his Shipwreck, mentions 
 that he was told by Sidi Homet, of an Arab in the great African 
 Desert who was nearly three hundred years old ; and he adds ' I 
 am fully of the opinion that many Arabs in this great expanse 
 of desert actually live to the age of two hundred years or more.' " 
 
 " Malte Brun says, ' It was in Punjaub and other elevated 
 districts that the ancients collected numerous examples of Indian 
 longevity. The Cyrni and the subjects of Prince Musicanus, often 
 lived to the age of one hundred and thirty or two hundred years.' " 
 
 Eminent scientists assert that, under favoring conditions: 
 
 1. The skin may last for nine hundred years. 
 
 2. The bones may endure four thousand years. 
 
 3. The heart may endure three hundred yea-rs. 
 
 4. The liver four hundred years. 
 
 5. The stomach nearly three hundred years. 
 
 6. The kidneys two hundred years or more. 
 
 7. The lungs fifteen hundred years. 
 
 H. J. Webber, in the American Naturalist February, 1892, says : 
 " Of certain organisms, however, we cannot predict that death will 
 occur. On the contrary, for the Protozoa and probably Protophyta, 
 it has been determined that there is no death. They are, accord- 
 ing to Weismann, immortal, so far as normal death is concerned. 
 Accidental death must be considered, and the ravages from higher 
 animals to which the Protozoa and Protophyta are exposed are 
 enormous. So methods are provided for their reproduction." 
 
 To what age might a person live? has often been asked. We 
 cannot answer it. Very slight care and a very easy regime wiU 
 preserve the health for a long time. 
 
60 
 
 CHAPTEH XIII 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 STRUGGLE OF LIFE AND DEATH. 
 
 ^ 
 
 E is deformed, crooked, old, and sere, 
 Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere ; 
 Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind; 
 Stigmatical in making, worse in mind. 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 ' Xo man or tcoman is sure oi being alice \.omorTo^x>"—ShaJteshury. 
 
 HE question is often asked why the human organism 
 cannot live forever ; why, when the body is built with 
 such wonderful design and magnificent complications, 
 containing as it does the seeds of immortality, and 
 capable of so much happiness, it should ever perish. 
 The flesh, bones, tissue, muscles and organs which are 
 used in the processes of every day existence, it would seem, ought 
 to be capable of an indefinite existence. 
 
 The old saying that the moment we commence to live we 
 all commence to die, is far from being correct. While the body is 
 adding to its size, or in other words, while growth is going on we 
 are not only not dying, but are more than living. There is at 
 work a certain positive life-principle, which asserts for the body a 
 strong existence ; and this life-principle more than holds its own 
 during the years of growth, after which it commences the struggle 
 which continues for so many years in strong constitutions, and in 
 which it is finally overcome by death. A careful knowledge of 
 this life-principle is essential to us all, and a subsequent chapter is 
 devoted to the discussion of it. 
 
 When the struggle between this essence of existence and 
 the hand of death commences, there is only one question at stake, 
 and that is merely one of time. It is a matter of absolute certainty 
 that death will conquer in the end, yet if we could know just what 
 the death of the body means we would be able to meet it, and, by 
 marshalling our forces, win instead of lose the battle. It is true 
 that during the period of growth, the life-principle may be sud- 
 denly arrested by disease, and death ensue ; but all death from any 
 cause except the wearing out of the body is unnatural. 
 
STRUGGLE OF LIFE AND DEATH. 61 
 
 We will call death by another name, dmntegration. Place 
 any specimen from the vegetable world upon the ground and a 
 certain process commences, whereby the particles which compose 
 it are separated from it one by one, and absorbed into new life. 
 This is the disintegration of that substance. Place a piece of meat 
 anywhere, and a similar process will ensue. Very soon the entire 
 piece becomes corrupt ; not only does its corruption cause its own 
 disintegration, but by contact with any other species of life is very 
 sure to commence a rapid dissolution of that also. This is the 
 whole sum and substance of death, stated without technical terms, 
 and freed from the language of the medical profession ; but ihade 
 clear to the ordinary reader. 
 
 No^v \ve do not mean to say that this same process is 
 delayed in the human body until growth ceases, but we do say 
 that the life-principle is much stronger while growth is going on 
 in the average person, than after life has obtained a foot-hold 
 upon the human body ; it is powerful enough to defeat the results 
 of dissolution. Even after growth has ceased the life-principle 
 holds its own against the process of disintegration often for many 
 years. When this process does commence it is sometimes very 
 rapid, as in the case of fever and other active diseases, and at 
 other times it is exceedingly slow, struggling for half a lifetime. 
 If it is possible to prevent disintegration, then it is possible to 
 delay the approach of death. 
 
 If we were to ask the question, how is life sustained? the 
 answer would readily come : by supplying the stomach with food. 
 But supposing the stomach is not able to digest that food, what 
 then ? Or, supposing the stomach is able to dispose of the food, but 
 the lungs are completely out of repair, of what use would the food 
 be to us ? You may then say that food is supplied to the stomach 
 for the purpose of making blood, and that the air is breathed into 
 the lungs for the purpose of carrying oxygen, which is used for 
 purifying the blood. This is an old notion which is in conflict 
 with the true theory of life itself. While the oxygen which the 
 blood absorbs from the air undoubtedly purifies the blood, if we 
 call changing its nature a purification, yet the main purpose of the 
 union between the blood and the oxygen which first comes from 
 the air, is to establish that vital process which governs the nervous 
 system. It is in this very act that life itself originates. 
 
 The food that passes into the stomach ought to find a 
 
62 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 willing and anxious digestive organ, — in other words an appetite. 
 Hunger is the true source of perfect digestion. A morbid appetite 
 is the result of an unnatural or diseased condition of the stomach. 
 We assert that loss of appetite and morbid hunger may be entirely 
 overcome. Having taken the position that the stomach can be 
 made to do its full duty, and thereby generate the proper supply 
 of food for the existence of the body, and being also ready to 
 prove, in another chapter, that the proper amount of oxygen can 
 be acquired even in diseased lungs, we are ready for the examina- 
 tion of the next question. 
 
 After the food has left the stomach, we find two processes at 
 work at the same time in the body : one, active life by means of 
 the circulation of the blood throughout the body, which is only 
 the better portion of the food passing to every possible fibre in 
 the entire system, — to bone, sinew, muscle, nerve, gland, tissue, 
 and organ, — life and existence ; and at the same time that portion 
 of the food for which the body has no further use passing onward 
 for the purpose of seeking an escape through the proper channels. 
 If it were possible for the refuse of the stomach to escape imme- 
 diately upon the completion of the process of digestion, we assert 
 that this one fact alone would add many years to a person's life; 
 but nature has uses even beyond the stomach for this refuse. 
 
 Death and life are in possession of the body every minute of 
 the day. Whether we call the functional processes life, or give that 
 name to the vital spark behind them ; the living energy, whatever 
 it is, makes death and meets death in every throb of its being. 
 Look at the surface of the skin : the beautiful epidermis is dying 
 every minute; the cells are breaking down ; the dead tissues are 
 blocking the way ; and a new skin is being woven in place of the 
 old. From birth to death, from the cradle to the grave, this living 
 and dying struggle knows no cessation. The muscles, the bones, 
 the veins, the arteries, the organs, the great network of the human 
 form, are breaking down and building up, from the first small cry 
 of the infant to the groan of departing age. In fact there can be 
 no life in our bodies that is not founded on the death of some 
 other life within. In a large sense the whole body is living and 
 dying at one and the same time ; and it needs but some disease to 
 complete the work quickly or to make it a weary drag for years. 
 In a small sense the tissues which compose every part of the body 
 from center to circumference, are dying in order to let others live 
 
STRUGGLE OF LIFE AND DEATH. 63 
 
 The body changes its inner or microscopic life, without 
 losing its own. If you raise your little finger, many tissues are 
 destroyed in the effort ; but immediately the blood brings a multi- 
 tude of others to take their places, and you get the new instead of 
 the old. The latter die and the fresh ones live. This is true of the 
 whole body. Whenever you move, there are tissues to die. What 
 w>ll be the character of the new ones? It all depends upon your 
 regime — ihat is, your common sense in supplying your blood with 
 food. If you drink tea, coffee, alcohol, impure water, and eat fried 
 grease, bad meat, sickly pastry, cake, and unhealthy cooking, of 
 course you are sure to supply bad materials to the blood, or at 
 least not the best, and the blood will build inferior tissues in place 
 of the old. Now you cannot help the old ones from dying ; you 
 have but two problems: first, to supply healthful new ones; 
 second, to get the carcasses of the dead ones out of the way before 
 they decay. The old ones are dying every day; and, in case of 
 lazy people, ihey. decay before they die — a small example of animal 
 mortification ; but, when the body is active, they die before they 
 decay and may be removed without causing disease. This sug- 
 gests the necessity of a reasonable amount of exercise. The two 
 problems, simple and brief, are met by the solutions, equally 
 simple and brief, healthful food and healthful exercise. 
 
 Once in seven years, as the old saying goes, the entire body 
 changes. This is not always true. If you exercise reasonably, 
 the part of the body most used will renew itself in a j'ear and less. 
 If you do not exercise, the old tissues will always decay before 
 they die, and will become a splendid ground of fertile soil for any 
 kind of disease that may come your way. But, some may ask, 
 how can the body die in its parts, and still be the same body and 
 the same person ? A man had a house, a style of building which 
 he desired to preserve. He constantly reshingled the roof, renewed 
 the sides, and put in, piece by piece, all the rafters and flooring. 
 After a while, not a particle of the grandfather's home remained, 
 yet it was the same house. An Irishman had a coat : the buttons 
 gave way, then one sleeve, then another, then parts of the back 
 and front ; his good wife all the time supplying new material ; yet 
 after a complete change it was the " same old coat." As in renew- 
 ing the house and the coat, better materials may be used in place 
 of the old ones, so the human body may be made better as it is 
 renewed — and this is Ralstonism. 
 
64 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 CAUSES OF DEATH. 
 
 *jBtRIEND after fWend departs; 
 '-**l Who hath not lost a friend ? 
 There is no union here of hearts 
 That finds not here an end. 
 
 James Montgomery. 
 
 " Our lices belong to others than ourseloes, and tec do others tsrong In onr 
 neglect oi health."— Shaftesbury. 
 
 JFE may be ended in one of three ways; and, whether 
 you live to a hundred, or die tomorrow, no other choice 
 is given you, but to die of one of the three causes : 
 
 1. Accident. 
 
 2. Wearing out. 
 
 3. Disease. 
 
 Accident is always preventable, unless it be elemental, as of 
 the storm, the flood, the sea or earth. Few persons die on land or 
 water, unless some negligence has aided the cause. In the cases 
 of railway disaster it would always be possible to prevent them if 
 a system of double watch were established. But, with the apalling 
 accumulation of deaths from railways and fires, the number who 
 are killed annually from the driving of horses exceeds all others 
 combined, and even then may be multiplied by three. One death 
 does not impress the public as twenty do. The author has seen 
 over a hundred people injured, and some killed outright and others 
 wounded fatally, by fast driving or runaways. In the course of 
 residence in one city, thirty-seven people have been killed by 
 street vehicles ; and, in that time, not one inhabitant has been the 
 victim of a railway accident. This does not refer to those whc , 
 by their own negligence, are struck by cars or horses. There is 
 too much fast horse-driving in crowded cities, and on thorough- 
 fares used by pedestrians. The law is either too lax, or too feebly 
 enforced. All classes of people, old and young, have a right to 
 the open air, and to cross the streets; and those who ride for 
 pleasure or drive for sport, should be compelled to respect the 
 rights of the less fortunate who seek what blessings their limited 
 opportunities will permit. 
 
CAUSES OF DEATH. 65 
 
 Wearing out is in reality old age, whether it comes early 
 or late in life. It occurs from the simplest cause, — ossification. 
 That is, the calcareous or mineral matter in the body collects and 
 ossifies all the avenues and channels of life : they become clogged 
 and, failing to perform their duties, gradually give way or wear 
 out. Only healthy people wear out; all others die of accident 
 or disease; yet the wearing out seems a pity when its cause is 
 80 simple, and its prevention so easy. There are some who are 
 wonderfully fresh, vigorous and beautiful in extreme age, and 
 their enjoyment of li% is so keen that death should be postponed 
 to a hundred years or more if possible. Physicians know that 
 mineral matter collects in the veins, among the fibers and 'in all 
 receptacles of the flesh ; they know that gall-stones, calculus and 
 bone-tendencies are specific maladies; they even undertake to 
 determine the chances oi a long life by examining the tendency 
 to ossification in the haoits of the body ; but the simple cause of 
 it all is the excess of mineral matter which we eat and drink and 
 might avoid ; and the deficiency of counteracting food which we 
 take into the system. The bones are Nature's timbers, supporting 
 beams and rafters, intended to hold the body in shape, just as the 
 frame work of a house is used to keep the house from falling out 
 of shape. These bones are built of the mineral deposits in the 
 blood, during youth. When growth ceases, the mineral deposits 
 should be lessened ; but they are not. Age, therefore, begins just 
 as soon as we stop growing ; for the blood, brain, nerves and flesh 
 begin to ossify. We must examine this further. 
 
 Disease is the third cause of death : and this is called ani- 
 malism. It is not found outside of the animal kingdom. It may 
 be described briefly as the result of the accumulation of dead ani- 
 mal-tissues in the form of a soil in and through the entire body ; 
 and the growth of disease-germs in this animal soil. The germs 
 of disease are little plants, or vegetable-ceUs and pods, called 
 bacteria ; and, when death is not due to accident or to wearing 
 out, it is always caused by the growth of this disease-vegetation in 
 the soil which fills the flesh of the body. This soil is not the 
 refuse matter of food, after it leaves the stomach; but is the 
 actual flesh-life of the body, which is dying every minute of the 
 day. There are many ways of proving the three great fact^ : 
 
 1. Disease is not possible unless animal soil has accumulated. 
 
 2. Disease is not possible unless there are bacteria somewhere. 
 
66 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 3 Disease is not possible Tinless the bacteria find their way 
 into the body and obtain lodgment in the soil, or animal refuse. 
 These facts being true, it follows that disease maybe prevented: 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 1. By not allowing the Animal soil to accumulate in the flesh. 
 
 2. By avoiding bacteria. 
 
 3. By preventing the bacteria from getting lodgment in the 
 soil, or flesh refuse. 
 
67 
 
 CHAPTEB XV. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 HOW THE BODY WEARS OUT. 
 
 31 LL flesh is grass, and all its glory fades 
 /^^ Like the fair flower dishevelled in the wind ; 
 Riches have wings, and grandtur is a dream; 
 The man we celebrate must find a tomb. 
 
 Cawper. 
 
 *' There arc some people icho sco^P at health until the^ lose it, and then 
 :n are coicards until they regain it."— Shafleebury. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 CCIDENT as the cause of death has been referred to and 
 will not again claim our attention, as it does not properly 
 come under the province of the Health Club. Our duty 
 is to deal with the two physical causes of death, the 
 wearing out, and disease; and to show, as far as we are 
 able, how both may be prevented or delayed, and possi- 
 bly checked when they are in the mastery. This chapter deals 
 with the wearing out of the functions, or organs, or any one of 
 them. The three vital organs are said to be the heart, the lungs 
 and the brain. Huxley claims that the brain is really not a vital 
 organ ; and asserts that artificial respiration and circulation will 
 support life, after the brain has been removed; but this is not an 
 advantageous experiment. The stomach is entitled to some 
 respect ; for, if its vitality is weakened, the heart, lungs and brain 
 cannot be nourished. The fact is, the whole body is dependent 
 upon its humblest organs, and we cannot afford to let anyone of 
 them wear out. 
 
 No one desires old age. Yet, if one could arrive at one 
 hundred and look only forty, with wealth, ease, power, and happi- 
 ness, would age then be undesirable? No. Now that is the 
 Ralston doctrine; and science, scientists, facts, and Nature all 
 endorse it. We will lay down the principles which underlie the 
 new doctrine; or this exposition of the first laws of life. 
 
 Nature affords a process to youth, which she intends should be 
 reversed when growth is attained. This claim was first stated by this 
 club ; yet, although the statement is new, the facts which support 
 it are old and authenticated. These facts we will look at now. A 
 glance at the diagram of the preceding chapter will show the large 
 
58 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 formation of bone in the vital parts of the body, and near the 
 heart. At birth this bone was gelatine. Life begins in gelatine 
 and ends in bones. Ask any physician ; he will tell you that old 
 age is but the osseous tendency of heart, brain, and arteries ; that 
 ninety-seven per cent of all people past middle life are ossifying, 
 or turning to bones, in the hearty in the brain, and in the arteries; 
 that a steady, gradual change in this direction is going on from 
 youth to age ; and that when an}^ part of the body, excepting the 
 bones, begins to secrete bony matter, weakness follows ; resulting, 
 first, in reducing the circulation, second, impoverishing the blood, 
 third, breaking down tissues, and fourth, exposing the organs to 
 the ravages of germ life. These facts are stated by Koch, Gru- 
 maine, Browne, Lewes, Bichat, Baillie, and a score of others : and 
 are proved by observation. 
 
 It is necessary that the osseous tendency should occur in youth. 
 This process makes the bones and gives the hardness. All foods 
 and liquids, except fruits and distilled water, contain carbonate 
 and phosphate of lime and other calcareous salts, which develop 
 bones ; and, by a continuous action, carry the tendency to every 
 part of the body. When the bones become hardened, the body 
 reaches its limit of growth. If a young person should eat fruits, 
 drink only distilled water, and follow the Ralston system of foods, 
 the bones would not harden for many years, and the body would 
 attain to great size. This hardening of the bones determines why 
 some persons are small and others large. 
 
 Medical works say " it is as natural to die as to be born." 
 Until within a few years all physicians have asserted that " there 
 comes a time when the body wears out, and death is the penalty, 
 visiting all that live." Apart from disease which destroys life, 
 the wear and tear of the body which brings on age are absolutely 
 unnecessary. We have seen that ossification is necessary to youth, 
 in order that the bones may be formed and made strong. This 
 action of the blood which deposits bony matter is kept up through 
 life. Why do we not reverse the process? Old age, the wear 
 and tear of life, the breaking down of the functions of the body, 
 are all caused by this osseous process, which is itself caused by 
 calcareous deposits. 
 
 There are five great results which sooner or later follow the 
 osseous tendency of the system : 
 
 1. The hardening of the skin j whereupon the skin wrinkles, 
 
HO^ THE BODY fVEARS OUT. 50 
 
 gets old, the hair is killed, and the blood does not circulate freely, 
 causing an aged look in place of the freshness of youth. We say 
 this can be prevented. 
 
 2. The brain turns to bony substance in its intricate parts ; it 
 loses flexibility, becomes hard, gets "set," and deep thinking is 
 impossible. 
 
 3. The heart is likewise clogged; its circulative action is 
 impeded, the body suffers by reason of poor blood, all the organs 
 begin to break down from lack of blood, and sickness or severe 
 exhaustion is liable at any moment to cause " heart failure." We 
 say this can be prevented. 
 
 4. The arteries all through the body become clogged by the 
 osseous tendency, and weariness results, causing the most serious 
 loss of energy. We say this can be prevented. 
 
 5. The bones, muscles, sinews, tendons, ligaments, and tissues 
 become stiff, and old age — " rheumaticky" old age — even at forty, 
 sets in, attended by multitudinous ills. We say this can be prevented. 
 
 Experiments, everywhere universal, prove that our theo- 
 ries are correct. Nature, and Nature's God decreed to man the 
 power of reasoning out his life ; to animals the misfortune of a 
 diminished brain. So animals die from the osseous tendency. 
 Yet we can prolong the life and buoyancy of any animal by 
 giving it distilled water altogether. Animals cannot of their own 
 volition reverse the process of youth; man can. We give the 
 Ralston Rule : 
 
 At the age of twenty-one, and ever after, habitiially dissolve the 
 osseous deposits of the body. Distilled water of itself is sufficient; 
 but, as it cannot always be obtained, the use of the following fruits 
 will aid to a great extent. Apples at all seasons, pears, grapes, 
 orange juice (not the pulp), cherries, plums, peaches, and 
 berries. Also follow the rules for eating as stated in subsequent 
 chapters. 
 
 To show that all the leading scientists of the world are now 
 accepting the Ralston doctrines, we refer our members to the latest 
 medical works and publications not only in America but every- 
 where in Europe. Physicians and scientists are beginning to think 
 in new channels. Notable among the late writings of scientists is 
 the article of Dr. Wm. Kinnear in the June (1893) number of the 
 North American Review, beginning at page 775. We quote the 
 following from it : Very few people, it is safe to say, desire old 
 
eo THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 age. Men and women harassed by trouble, or overpowered by 
 sorrow, surrounded by disgrace or tortured by pain, may long for 
 death, but not for a hundred or two hundred years of human life. 
 Old age is of two kinds. One, the passing of many years ; the 
 other, brought about by excesses either mental or physical. 
 
 We cannot defy death. But we may by searching, find 
 certain secrets of nature and apply them to the renewal of the 
 organs whose decay is constantly going on in the body. Anatom- 
 ical experiment and investigation show that the chief character- 
 istics of old age are deposits of earthy matter of a gelatinous and 
 fibrinous character in the human system. Carbonate and phos- 
 phate of lime, mixed with other salts of a calcareous nature, have 
 been found to furnish the greater part of these earthy deposits. 
 As observation shows, man begins in a gelatinous condition ; he 
 ends in an osseous or bony one — soft in infancy, hard in old age. 
 By gradual change in the long space of years, the ossification 
 comes on ; but after middle life is past, a more marked develop- 
 ment of the ossific character takes place. Of course these earthy 
 deposits, which affect all the physical organs, naturally interfere 
 with their functions. Partial ossification of the heart produces the 
 imperfect circulation of the blood, which affects the aged. When 
 the arteries are clogged with calcareous matter there is interference 
 with the circulation upon which nutrition depends. Without 
 nutrition there is no repair of the body. Hence, G. H. Lewes 
 states, that " If the repair were always identical with the waste, 
 life would only then be terminated by accident, never by old ageJ^ 
 
 In the chemical changes constantly taking place in our 
 bodies, oxygen plays the most important part by all odds. By 
 oxidation, which is a constant waste or rust of life, the physical 
 system is hourly destroyed, and then again built up by the repar- 
 ation of the food we live upon. Albumen and fibrine exist in the 
 blood, and are resolved into their component elements, carbon, 
 hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and phosphorus. By oxida- 
 tion, the albumen is converted into fibrine, which nourishes the 
 organs of our bodies. But in repairing their waste an excess of 
 this substance accumulates in the blood vessels, causing their 
 induration, and thus gradually lessening their calibre. Gelatine 
 is an oxide of fibrine, as fibrine is an oxide of albumen. Oxidation 
 causes these substances in part to be decomposed, and afterwards 
 eliminated through the kidneys. A constant struggle is daily 
 
HOIV THE BODY IV EARS OUT. 61 
 
 going on in our bodies when in the most perfect health between 
 accumulation and elimination. And these accumulations, becom- 
 ing greater in old age than the power of elimination, produce the 
 effects we term feeling one's age. 
 
 Paradoxical as it may sound, certain foods which we put 
 into our mouths to preserve our lives, help at the same time to 
 hurry us to the inevitable gate of the cemetery. A diet made up 
 of fruit principally is best for people advancing in years, for the 
 reason that being deficient in nitrogen the ossific deposits so much 
 to be dreaded are more likely to be suspended.. Moderate eaters 
 have in all cases a much better chance of long Ufe than -those 
 addicted to excesses of the table. Blockages of the functions of 
 the stomach are more usual to those who eat more than the stom- 
 ach can utilize, than to light eaters. Mr. De Lacy Evans, who 
 made many careful researches in these regions of science, comes 
 to the conclusion that fruits, fish, and poultry, and young mutton 
 and veal contain less of the earthy salts than other articles of food, 
 and are therefore best for people. Beef and old mutton usually 
 are overcharged with salts and should be avoided. If one desires 
 to prolong life, therefore, it seems that moderate eating and a diet 
 containing a minimus amount of earthy particles is most suitable 
 to retard old age by preserving the system from blockages. 
 
 The powerful solvent properties of distilled water are well 
 known. As carbonate of lime exists in nearly all drinking water, 
 the careful distillation eliminates this harmful element. As a 
 beverage, distilled water is rapidly absorbed into the blood ; it 
 keeps soluble those salts already in the blood and facihtates their 
 excretion, thus preventing their undue deposit. The daily use of 
 distilled water is, after middle life, one of the most important 
 means of preventing secretions and the derangement of health. 
 Hence, to sum up : the most rational modes of keeping physical 
 decay or deterioration at bay, and thus retarding the approach of 
 old age, are avoiding all foods rich in the earth salts, using much 
 fruit, especially juicy, uncooked apples, and by t:iking daily two or 
 three tumblerfuls of distilled water. 
 
 William Kinnear. 
 
 As far as research and investigation are concerned, the 
 results of scientific methods, concurring from all sources, are 
 placed on a plane where dispute is not possible. All that is left 
 us is some simple means of meeting the requirements of Nature. 
 
62 
 
 CHAPTER XVI, 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 ATTACKS ON LIFE. 
 
 OUTH is not rich in time, it may be poor ; 
 Part with it* as Avith money, sparing ; pay 
 No moment but in purchase of its worth : 
 And what it's worth ask death-beds, they can tell. 
 
 Young. 
 
 Man has learned to cope tcith the dangers that threaten his life from icithout; he 
 /A. ^ must note turn his attention to those vcithin."— Shaftesbury • 
 
 HEN a child is born the bones are not hard. They are 
 like gelatine, easily bent. The milk and other food 
 should contain enough old-age matter (calcareous depos- 
 its) to enable the bones to harden. But, even if this is 
 done, the growth of the body continues to demand more 
 old-age matter to enable the growing bones to be well- 
 built. All through the years of infancy, childhood and youth, the 
 food is carrying the old-age matter to the blood and the bones 
 are using it ; and this is done without any special diet, except in 
 cases of food deficiency which are rare. 
 
 If youth receives so much of this bone making material, 
 how shall it be disposed of when growth is attained, when the 
 bones are made and stop increasing in size, and when more food is 
 eaten, and consequently more old- 
 age matter gets into the system? 
 This is the problem of human life. 
 Figure 2 presents a thin longitudinal 
 section of bone. It is full of sap or 
 rich, blood-like fluid, which gives it 
 strength and a healthful flexibility. 
 It represents the bony structure of 
 any person above eighteen years of 
 age who exercises freely, and keeps 
 healthy. Through the bone, which 
 
 is highly magnified, are little channels for the flow of the blood- 
 like fluid. In health a fresh bone exhibits a reddish hue, showing 
 that the blood sends its living vitality all through the structure. 
 We know that the bone includes chiefly old-age matter. 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 A section of bone magnified. 
 
ATTACKS ON LIFE. 
 
 68 
 
 The bone becoming older. 
 
 The first step in the approach of the calcareous tendency, 
 which sooner or later must surely destroy life, is in the ossifying 
 of the bones themselves. Like attracts like. The calcareous, or 
 old-age matter seeks the bones, and begins to make them dryer, 
 
 dryer, more brittle, le*ss flexible, and less 
 rich in the blood-like fluid which should 
 always flow through the channels, in the 
 very midst of the bony structure itself. 
 Even the channels become closed, and 
 the health of its inward composition 
 begins to fail. A comparison of Figure 3 
 with Figure 2 will show the difierence 
 between the bony structure of a person 
 who exercises and keeps healthy, and 
 one who is getting lazy, unhealthy and 
 wrinkling. Nothing causes old-age and wrinkles so rapidly as lack 
 of exercise, properly balanced ; the strain on one set of over-worked 
 muscles being relieved by the use of others to balance. This 
 cures exhaustion and the tired condition that follows hard work. 
 Of course to keep the bones full of rich fluid and healthy, a person 
 must exercise daily. If you are in fairly good health, use only the 
 drill given in the exercise division of this volume ; but if you are 
 not well, then by all means take the movement cures of complete 
 membership. The one 
 hundred exercises a r e 
 clearly illustrated and 
 fully explained. 
 
 The veins, through 
 which the blood travels, 
 must be free to admit the 
 flow without interrup- 
 tion. Yet the inner por- 
 tions are constantly 
 receiving a deposit of the 
 old-age matter. In Fig- 
 ure 4 are shown the parts of veins, or blood-vessels magnified, 
 through which these deposits are washed. If you will boil hard 
 water in a kettle, you will find that, after a while, a whitish coating 
 clings to the inner surface of the kettle. It is so with the innner 
 surface of the veins. Their irregular shape is noticed. Sometimes 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 Veins and pieces of old-age matter. 
 
64 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 Two sections of spinal column. 
 
 the calcareous matter forms in lumps and blocks the veins; then 
 a serious local complication arises ; death 
 of tissues, fibres, muscles, nerves, may- 
 follow, ending in tumors and simiUir, 
 troubles. 
 
 The bones themselves are seriou.^ly 
 afiected by the osseous tendency of the 
 system. We have seen that the inner, 
 porous passages become blocked. Physi- 
 ology tells us that there are more bones 
 in childhood than in age; that some of 
 them grow together. A post-mortem 
 examination of the frame-work of an old 
 person shows that some of the bones grow 
 together during life. In Figure 5 are pre- 
 sented two sections of the bone-work of the spinal column. The 
 true thickness is not apparent in this view. These bones are them- 
 selves coated in time with 
 old-age matter, which is 
 bony, or osseous substance; 
 after a while, in lazy people, 
 they lose their flexibility; 
 the back becomes stiff; and 
 two or more of these sec- 
 tions are stuck together. 
 Such is age, which comes on 
 early in the lives of the un- 
 healthy ; but exercise and a 
 proper diet are cures for this 
 unfortunate condition, 
 which prevails in ninety- 
 five per cent of all people. 
 Pains in the joints 
 are due chiefly to the osseous 
 tendency of the system. In 
 the elbows, wrists, shoulders, 
 hips, knees, ankles and feet, the bones are so placed with relation 
 to one another that there is a rubbing of bone against bone; 
 though, in health, an oily film, or cartilage, protects them. This 
 becomes a hiding place for old-age salty mineral deposits. After a 
 
ATTACKS ON LIFE, 
 
 Q5 
 
 while a person is stifif in the joints; for the cartilage is thickening 
 and getting dry and harsh. Then every movement is a pain. 
 Figure 6 shows a ver}- prominent joint in the body, and illustrates 
 how painful would be a motion of the bones if they grated harshly 
 on one another, w4th mineral salts between. 
 
 Age comes in middle life to many. Rheumatism and 
 kindred pains are "joint" troubles, and sometimes are found in 
 young people. The senses must be more or less afifected by this 
 ossifying tendency. If you have a beautiful watch, whose delicate 
 machinery is deluged with calcareous fluids, how long do you 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 The ear and bony structure. 
 
 think it will be before the works are clogged by the coating on the 
 wheels ? To test the certainty of disaster place your hundred dol- 
 lar watch in lime water, and let it run until the mineral collects in 
 sufficient quantity to stop the works. When the hearing thickens 
 there must be some cause for it. Things do not happen of them- 
 selves. Keep the ear and its surroundings free from old-age 
 deposits, and there will be no trouble in the hearing for several 
 scores of years. But these particles go everywhere. The bones 
 attract them; but they are found in other parts of the body. 
 They collect about the ear, and have a large attraction, as will be 
 seen from the long structure as shown in Figure 7. 
 
66 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 The sight is attacked by the same cause. In Figure 8 we 
 give an unusually valuable illustration of the position of the two 
 eyes as they are placed in their bony sockets. The power of 
 seeing depends upon the shape of the eyeball ; let it flatten or be 
 narrowed and the result is very quickly seen. There are bones 
 right and left of each ball, as well as behind ; and there are many 
 opportunities for the accumulation of old-age deposits. 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 The eye-balls and their surroundings. 
 
 The brain is likewise the prey of the attacks of these depos- 
 its. Throughout the blood-vessels and passages, the old-age matter 
 collects ; the mind is no longer flexible ; it cannot think as clearly 
 in some cases ; and, whenever it does think clearly, it has no 
 freedom; its thoughts run in fixed channels; opinions never 
 change ; right or wrong there is but one way for everything ; and 
 obstinacy, that sure sign of age, is the key of all conduct. By and 
 by some organ cannot do its work. If it is the brain, the owner 
 goes to the asylum ; if it is the heart, the failure comes unawares ; 
 if it is the kidneys, Bright's disease claims the victim ; if it is in 
 the nervous system, paralysis stops the clock-work of the body ; if 
 it is every where, the time of life is extended, the feebling pulse sim- 
 ply runs down like a slowly expiring time-piece, and the old man 
 falls asleep. So we all must die, in one of these ways, unless dis- 
 ease claims us before the machinery is worn out. 
 
67 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 HOW DISEASE COMES. 
 
 P^ 
 
 S man, perhajB, the moment of his breath. 
 Receives the lurking principle of death, 
 The young disease that must subdue at length, 
 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 There is no disease that has not originated in ignorance or 
 indiffterence."— SAct/fes&"n/' 
 
 EN have searched for centuries for the causes of disease. 
 Before they sought the causes they studied the cures, 
 and these were necessarily investigated from the 
 results obtained by experiments and experience. 
 They are still hunting for cures and have the addi- 
 tional advantage of knowing the causes. There is no 
 such thing as an effect without a cause. All diseases have their 
 distinct and well defined origin, apart from the source of ossifica- 
 tion. In the latter case the body wears out, by the filling up of 
 the avenues of life. In disease there is always a foreign growth 
 in the accumulated soil of the body. This growth kills life. 
 
 The body is but a collection of cells and tissues. It is the 
 way these are put together that makes one part differ from another. 
 In Figure 9 we see these cells united in 
 layers. Imagine them to be so small that 
 millions are contained in a drop of water 
 that might be supported on the point of a 
 needle and you may get an idea of their 
 number. They grow, and the body grows, 
 merely by each cell increasing in size, 
 then dividing and making two instead of 
 one. This process is seen in Figure 10, 
 and this is the way the parts of the body 
 supply themselves when their tissues 
 break down. Millions times millions of cells die daily, but still 
 the increase goes on, and so the body lives. Let the increase stop 
 for any reason, or let the death of cells be greater than the increase, 
 and disaster follows ; and this is disease. 
 
(5 
 
 00 
 
 68 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Disease comes from several causes : 
 
 1. From lack of food to supply cell-life. 
 
 2. From lack of vital-oxygen to build cell-life. 
 
 3. From a foreign attack on cell-life. The first two causes are 
 not forms of decaying disease. The attack on 
 cell-life is always a species of decay. Meat spoils 
 only because its cell-structure is attacked by 
 germs; milk sours, foods ferment, all things rot 
 in one general way: the assault of germs upon 
 
 Fig. 10. the substance, setting free the chemical elements 
 
 CeU-division. . . . ' • -x x • ^u i. ^ 
 
 mvolved. Disease, in its true sense, m the body 
 must consist of soil, and a germ growth in the soil. The germs 
 flourish in the soil and feed on the cells and the food intended for 
 the cells. 
 
 If this point can be made clear we shall have accomplished 
 our chief desire. In Figure 11, we present some of the variations 
 in the forms of cells. They are, in fact, of all shapes. As they 
 grow some die in the expression of life. To speak aptly, every 
 effort of the body or its parts must be accompanied by the death 
 of cells. This death makes way for the new growth ; but the dead 
 carcasses of millions of cells daily furnishes a continuous succes- 
 sion of refuse-heaps of animal matter throughout 
 the body. This is the first step in disease. The 
 animal-refuse becomes a soil that should be thrown 
 J ^^ off as fast as it is made. But what is the fact ? The 
 g animal soil is left to itself. It collects at the pores of 
 
 \ AiM the skin and leads to skin disease. It collects at the 
 lungs and leads to consumption ; at the heart and 
 destroys the better life ; at the stomach and clogs it ; 
 at the kidneys and hinders their full functions ; at 
 the throat and leads to diphtheria; through the 
 abdomen and leads to typhoid ; in the blood-vessels 
 and prepares the way for one of many contagious 
 fevers ; and in the liver, leading to enlargement. 
 Fomfof cells ^^^^ animal soil is merely the fore-runner of 
 disease. It is like the garden which the planter has 
 made ready with rich earth wherein the orchard is to be set; and, 
 being prepared, needs only the orchard ; but, if the trees are not 
 brought, spontaneous weeds will flourish. The animal soil of the 
 body has no right to remain in the system; but, being there. 
 
HOU^ DISE/ISE COMES. 69 
 
 something is bound to grow. Disease is the fruit. If no distinct 
 germ is found, a spontaneous growth of its own will spring up. 
 This is perhaps less dangerous than a specific disease. In 
 Figure 12 we show an organ of the body in good health. In this 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 A healthy heart. 
 
 case it is the heart but it stands for any healthy part. After the 
 vigor of youth is past the inactivity, or unbalanced toil, of men 
 and women may not be able to cope with the ever accumulating 
 animal-soil, and this disease-inviting refuse, at length fastens itself 
 to some organ or part, corroding and corrupting whatever it touches. 
 The breath is a very good indicator of the condition within. 
 If the teeth are unsound, their decay will prevent a clear indica- 
 tion. But, in cases of those who have sound teeth, if the liver, 
 lungs, heart, or inner regions are well loaded with soil, the breath 
 will convey it to the nostrils of another. The odor is easily 
 detected. It is that of a decaying animal. In a pure breath, 
 there is only the smell of fresh life ; even the carbonic acid being 
 unnoticeable. Breathe this into a glass jar ; although the lack of 
 oxygen wiU put out a lighted match, yet there is no smell of 
 animal matter until it has stood long enough to decay ; then it is 
 very ofiensive. But in a person whose inner regions are loaded 
 
70 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 with soil from dead tissues, the odor of decay is always present, 
 and the breath is charged with it. More than this, it is a positive 
 danger for one person to inhale such breath, either in a hall, room, 
 or sleeping chamber. Unless the Ralston regime for the cure of 
 this condition is put into practice, it is safe to say that many 
 persons from the age of twenty upward, and nearly all persons 
 beyond the age of thirty-five or forty, have corroding animal soil 
 
 A corroded heart. 
 
 Fig 13. 
 
 Actual photographic view, 
 
 throughout their bodies, and the dead carcasses, getting free, are 
 exhaled for others to inhale. No wonder that ninety-five per cent 
 of humanity are in ill-health. Figure 13 presents the heart of a 
 woman, from an actual photographic view, immediately on death. 
 It is full size. Nothing is left to the imagination of the artist, for 
 the view is real. It is generally impossible to get engravings from 
 
HOIV DISEASE COMES. 
 
 71 
 
 actual photographs, showing a condition like this, and the picture 
 is all the more valuable. What a lesson to our men and women ! 
 To test the breath, obtain a good 500-diameter microscope; 
 then breathe into a glass-jar ; and, after a few hours, examine the 
 animal life that came from the lungs. You will see the dead 
 carcasses of the tissues and cells that escaped from your body. 
 There is no mistaking the result. If the breath will carry off 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 Collection of animal-soil. Actual photographic view. 
 
 some of this refuse, why may it not be compelled to take it all 
 away? In Figure 14 is seen a large mass of dead-soil growth, 
 located between the kidneys. This is a photographic picture 
 taken from an actual condition. Such accumulations are going 
 on in all persons, in greater or less degree. It is true, they are 
 but the soil; but the more solemn fact remains, that without 
 this soil disease-germs could not thrive in the body. The lesson 
 is clear : throw off this dead animal tissue by regime. 
 
72 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE ENEMIES. 
 
 2^HINK'ST thou there are no serpents in the world 
 ^^ But those who slide along the grassy sod, 
 
 And sting the luckless foot that presses them? 
 
 BaiUie. 
 
 " Bacteria are intelligent cegetable germs, capable o* destroijing the body in a feic 
 
 daijs. ' '—Shaftesbury. 
 
 )VERY part of the surface of the earth, except high 
 mountains, is the scene of germ-life. Even in frozen 
 climes they exist in spore-form, but are inactive until 
 warmth gives them vigor. To test the degree of 
 impregnation in the air, place a dish of milk or a piece 
 of steak in an exposed position. If the former sours 
 or the latter becomes tainted, such change is due solely to the 
 attacks of germ-life. Their presence is easily proved. 
 
 \Vhat are they, and why do they exist? What they are, 
 and their mode of operation, is properly within the province 
 of this book; but why they exist is a purely philosophical ques- 
 tion and is discussed in the high degree Ralston book, Our Exist- 
 ences. The microscope of the biologist has not been idle these last 
 few years, especially the European, whose excellence has been many 
 times proved in the search for bacteria. 
 
 There are two divisions of life: animal and vegetable. 
 In the larger sense an animal has motion, a digestive cavity and a 
 nervous system; while a vegetable grows in a fixed position, 
 migrating only by its increase, as weeds may spread over a whole 
 garden. An animal lives on organic matter, as plants and other 
 animals; a vegetable lives on inorganic matter; and if flesh is 
 offered to vegetation as food, the plant will first decompose it, 
 before it will eat it. All decomposition, decay, tainting, souring 
 and fermenting may be attributed to vegetable life in germ-form, 
 tearing tissues apart in order to reduce the organic to an inorganic 
 state; and this is just what decay does. 
 
 The rule of food is here clearly seen, and is in two parts : 
 first, the animal kingdom, including man, may digest any organic 
 
THE ENEMIES. 78 
 
 matter whether animal or plant ; and the vegetable kingdom may 
 digest only inorganic matter ; second, man should never take inor- 
 ganic matter into his system, and vegetation does not take organic. 
 Medicines, as a rule, are inorganic, and therefore poisons. Any 
 perfectly fermented substance is organic reduced to inorganic, and 
 therefore poisonous. The rule is absolute, and is mankind's per- 
 fect guide. By the law of adhesion much inorganic dust clings to 
 growing vegetation ; but this is incidental only, and from it are 
 formed the hair, nails, teeth and bones. 
 
 There are two divisions of animal life : first, that which is 
 visible to the eye ; second, that which is visible only by the aid of 
 a microscope. The latter is not bacteria, nor germ-life ; although, 
 as in the case of pork-disease, it is capable of destroying life. 
 There are three divisions of vegetable life: first, that which is 
 visible to the eye; second, that which is clearly visible to the micro- 
 scope ; third, that which is so small that only a most powerful 
 microscope and cultivation with the use of dyes may discover it 
 clearly. The last division is bacteria, and includes builders and 
 destroyers. They are all vegetable, as no animal life can exist so 
 small. The bacteria are builders when they are cells, just the 
 ordinary cells that make the body; they are destroyers when, 
 instead of uniting with the body as a part of it, they tear open the 
 cells and devour the rich protoplasm inside, and grow, and thrive, 
 and increase in great numbers. They grow so fast that a single 
 one may become a million in a very short time, and so on until 
 the body is being devoured from end to end and death threatens 
 to terminate our life. We call these destroyers, enemies. 
 
 They are everywhere, except on high mountains. They 
 build nothing. They simply destroy, eat and increase. They 
 are open enemies. So vicious is their wolf-like nature that they 
 employ the most intelligent methods of getting to their victims. 
 For instance, they seem to know that damp air will do them no 
 good ; so they never venture out in it. Dry air is never free from 
 disease. This has something to do with the longevity of those who 
 live in healthy locations on the seacoast. The enemies also seem 
 to know that dry dust will cling on damp surfaces ; so they are car- 
 ried from place to place, until they reach a favorable soil for growth. 
 Any damp surface in a dry air is a landing place for disease. 
 
 These enemies are growing plants; just like so many 
 leaves. Their appearance is as varied as plants are ; but they are 
 
74 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 classed in species, and each kind is the cause of a certain disease. 
 
 Figure 15 represents a simple 
 
 6^ ^^ /^(k ^/^ ^(^ \^ ^ 
 
 form of these enemies; and 
 Figure 16 shows them lingering 
 ^^^- 1^ around the flesh cells, ready to 
 
 Enemies. *; . 
 
 destroy them and devour their 
 contents. In dry air, if you inhale through the mouth, as all per- 
 sons do in conversation, you will take millions of these enemies 
 
 into your system ; but, if there is 
 no soil or dead animal refuse in 
 your body, they will not grow. 
 
 Fig. 16. If they can get root they will 
 
 '^"^^^' grow rapidly, and their offspring 
 
 will make the attack as in Figure 16. All diseases take time. 
 
 The tartar on the teeth is loaded with disease germs. 
 From the teeth of children, who had not kept their tooth-brushes 
 very much employed, was taken a lot of tartar which contained 
 diptheria germs. No doubt these floating enemies had been 
 inhaled and were caught by the teeth. The dead soil around 
 unclean teeth would be fertile ground for them ; there they grow ; 
 and from there migrate to the throat in the moving saliva ; and 
 then the throat becomes sore, inflammation sets in ; and death 
 ensues. As we shall see, it is impossible to catch disease if one 
 inhales through the nose, for the nasal chamber is a filter. Why 
 should not the art of nose-breathing be taught to the children of 
 the public schools on Ralston Day ? It will save life. 
 
 Burst a white pimple on your face: the contents are a 
 yellowish-white cheesy mass. In it are great numbers of germs, 
 wallowing amid the dead tissues they have destroyed, and the soil 
 wherein they grew. If you go a week without bathing the result 
 is that dead soil has accumulated all over the surface of the body : 
 sooner or later in the week some germs will get root in this soil, and 
 skin eruptions, very slight at first, will follow. 
 
 Expose meat and bread to a dry atmosphere, and the moist 
 surface will be a favorable ground for the floating germs. As soon 
 as they touch the damp meat or bread, they will alight and com- 
 mence to make themselves at home. In a few hours a nice family 
 of millions will be inbedded in the food, just below the surface, 
 where they have taken root. Heat will kill them. It is better to 
 toast exposed food, or else trim off a small part of the surface. 
 
76 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 TEMPLE OF HEALTH 
 
 fPHL hand that rounded Peter's dome * • * 
 ^■^ Wrought in a sad sincerity ; 
 
 Himself from God he could not firee; 
 He builded better than he knew. 
 Emenon. 
 ** Ideals are the dreams of realities."— >SAfl[/i!e8&ur|f. 
 
 ^OME with US for a brief moment into an explanation 
 of the Ralston system. We have been asked to so 
 symbolize it that the great facts of Ralstonism shall 
 stand out clearly, and be comprehended at a glance. 
 To accomplish this purpose, we have taken the 
 symbol of a building, and this we call the temple 
 of health. The purpose we have in view is to simplify the theory 
 of life, so that a person will know how to protect it, and not become 
 one of those unfortunates who go prematurely to the grave. 
 
 If you should have leisure at some future time, why not 
 invent a model structure in your mind, to be called the Ralston 
 Temple of Health ? Some day the vast membership of this club 
 may decide to build a splendid structure at the capital of the 
 nation ; and similar temples in other cities, all after the design or 
 model to be suggested by you or another whose brain can supply 
 the ideas. 
 
 There must be four sides to start with. There are four 
 cardinal points of health, — glame, food, exercise and cheerfulness. 
 Glanie should face the east, to greet the rising sun, the source of all 
 vitality. Cheerfulness should face the south, the direction of peren- 
 nial warmth and brightness, of smiling skies and cheering gladness. 
 Food should face the west, tow^ard that sunset hour of life to which 
 all growth is tending. Exercise should face the north, the clear cut 
 cold of whose bracing atmosphere invigorates the health and im- 
 parts the glory of the rose to the face. Just think of the four grand 
 entrances that could be built to greet the visitor ! 
 
 There must be twelve pillars on each side. The reason 
 for the use of the number twelve cannot be stated at this place, as 
 it belongs to the future of Deeper Ralstonism ; and pages would 
 be required to explain it here. It is the most important and fruit- 
 ful of the symbols of our club. For your purpose it is sufficient 
 to know that there must be twelve piUars on each side. These are 
 great columns, each consisting of seven sections, as shown in the 
 
76 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 illustration on page 44. These sections must bear the letters which 
 are the initials of the great septemes described in chapters 5 to 11 
 inclusive. When the seven laws of life were promulgated by seven 
 men, it was found that the first letter of each, as the words lay on 
 the table, apparently by pure accident, spelled R-A-L-S-T-0-N. 
 Each man had written his favored word on a slip of paper. When 
 the name appeared so forcibly, several declared it to be an inspira- 
 tion ; but this claim is not made by the club. On looking into 
 the meaning of ralston it is found to be identical with the old 
 surname, Realstone, meaning solidity, endurance, and substantial 
 strength. Therefore the great columns of the Ralston Temple of 
 Health should be real stone. 
 
 The rooms within, whether arranged for living, or business, 
 or educational purposes, should be in harmony with the principles 
 of outside architecture. Thus, on the east should be the sleeping 
 room ; health requires that all sleeping apartments should face 
 the east; being shaded from the sun after noon, they invite sleep 
 by reason of the withdrawal of the day's vitality ; and they are 
 cooler. But, facing the returning sun of morn, they invite the 
 new vitality of the coming day, and life dawns healthily. The 
 south side is Nature's cheerful zone. All living rooms in any house 
 should have a southern exposure ; in winter they get the all day's 
 sunshine ; and, by the northing of the sun in summer, they are 
 the coolest and pleasantest rooms in the house then. On the west, 
 or food side, should be the dining room, and nearby, to the north, 
 the kitchen. On the north should be the yard without, and the 
 fire rooms within. Dwelling houses built on this plan are more 
 suitable for human beings than are those built otherwise. 
 
 The escutcheon and coat-of-arms of each Ralstonite is a 
 Circle-and-Sun-Star, as shown in Figure 17. Every member is free 
 to have one designed and engraved for printing. 
 Many ladies and gentlemen have it engraved on 
 letter paper. The star may be varied at will, so that 
 the design does not depart from the symbolical ideas. 
 A circle is endless and complete. To be in complete 
 ^""^ 1^- health, is to be WELL. This is the meaning of the 
 circle. One who desires to be well, often has no hope, and no reason 
 for hope; until Ralstonism, like a star, shows the way to perfect 
 health. The star in all ages has been the signal of hope. It 
 belongs to Ralstonism. Members of this great Club have before 
 them all their lives, this unfailing star of HOPE. 
 
77 
 
 CHAPTEK XX. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 RALSTON REGIME. 
 
 C^HIS is the charm, by sages often told, 
 ^fi*' Converting all it touches into gold : 
 
 Content can soothe, where'er by fortune placed. 
 
 Can rear a garden in the desert waste, 
 
 Henry Kirke White. 
 
 Bettoeen the beginning and the end o% ccery epoch in life are tico landmarks, 
 one tcbich marks the casting off oi the old and one tcbich sbotcs 
 the calue of the new."— Sfiqftesbury. 
 
 .ALSTON REGIME is short and simple. It does not 
 require anything. It asks of you, and appeals to your 
 judgment to grant it, that you will look upon health 
 as a duty owing to yourself and others ; and, in view 
 of this duty, it asks you to pay some attention to food, 
 glame, exercise, and cheerfulness. We know it would 
 be folly on our part to ask you to turn right about and completely 
 change your mode of living. It is not human nature to revolu- 
 tionize oneself. Our success in maintaining and restoring the 
 health of our members in the past has been so great as to be won- 
 dered at ; and the secret is in the fact that, if we can induce a 
 member to make a slight change or to pay a little attention to the 
 laws of life, the result is so satisfactory that further changes follow. 
 Thus a man who was too busy to attend to himself, was slowly 
 going down to his grave from mere neglect of his health, as his 
 brothers had done before him. He was the last of a large family. 
 His w^ife said : " Do you not owe me a duty ?" But he was too 
 busy to pay any attention to regime. By skillful management his 
 wife taught him the glame exercise. It took one minute in every 
 hour. Soon his lungs began to get more life ; his appetite returned. 
 Then he became interested. His first remark was : " Ralstonism 
 is sensible, for it does not crowd a lot of matters in its demands." 
 He paid attention to food, to exercise, to cheerfulness ; he got well ; 
 is now a ruddy-faced Ralstonite of a high degree ; and has inter- 
 ested others. Now if his wife had attempted to teach him more 
 than the simple glame-exercise, it would have been "love's labor 
 lost." 
 
78 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Of the lives saved to homes and loved ones by these prin- 
 ciples, a large majority were first made to see that health and self- 
 attention were duties; and the earliest step was the practice of 
 glame, than which nothing could be more simple and interesting. 
 So, if you seek to aid others, always commence with a single step. 
 
 Regime is something to do. Of course it is well to have 
 something to think about; but thinking and reading will not 
 repair that broken system of yours, nor preserve the health you 
 already have. Regime is not hard if it is founded on Nature : and 
 it is not sensible if it is founded on any other plan. It is not hard 
 to become a Ralstonite, to live a Ralstonite, to practice Ralstonism ; 
 no harder than it is to be that better self which the great mother 
 of us all would have made you, had the materials of growth been 
 as perfect as the impulse of Nature. You breathe twenty-four 
 hours a day : is it not just as easy to breathe pure air, fresh air 
 vital air, in a sensible way, as it is to inhale dead air, animal air, 
 refuse air, sick air, in a dangerous way ? 
 
 You eat for three hundred and sixty-five days every year: is 
 it not just as easy to eat health-giving food, as it is to crowd 
 dyspepsia down the throat ? Your body dies in part every day : 
 how can it live if it cannot get the food it demands ? Regime sim- 
 ply tells you that some food is not needed by the body and clogs 
 the system, adding to the dead soil already there ; that some other 
 food, which the body needs, is not given it daily, and there will be 
 cell-starvation, or inability to defend life against disease. 
 
 And last of all you can as easily cultivate cheerfulness, as to 
 sufier the consequences of your increasing irritability. Of course 
 you know and are agreed that unkindness never pays; but that 
 relates to your conduct with others. We are seeking to develop in 
 you a spirit of kindliness toward yourself. Whether you are kind 
 to others or not, is less a part of this consideration, than what you 
 are to yourself. Is your nervous system irritable ? That is its bad 
 drift. You say you are not quite well. Yes, but irritability grows 
 on you; it feeds on itself. Avoid it; avoid peevishness, smallness 
 of heart, cynicism, pessimism, willingness to believe in the faults 
 of others, and everything that narrows your soul. Broaden your 
 face ; two wrinkles are forming between the eyes ; smite them out 
 and iron them smooth by a cultivated inner flood of cheerfulness. 
 
 Many people believe that Ralstonism seeks to limit the 
 pleasures of life in eating and in habits that destroy the health. 
 
RALSTON REGIME. 79 
 
 This is not true. Ralstonism adds to your pleasures, and so fortifies 
 your system that you can still go on abusing it, if you choose, for 
 a long time before the breakdown comes ; and we will show you 
 how to delay the fatal day. AYe will show you to teach your children 
 how to avoid the dreaded contagions that so unexpectedly sweep 
 the little ones into the grave. Is it worth trying ? 
 
 The practice of health will now command your attention ; 
 and, in this practice, we feel sure that you will go a good way, and 
 it is better at this stage to fill out the record of your condition ; so 
 that, some time hence, you may know what changes have been 
 wrought for you by Ralstonism. All journeys are attended by 
 landmarks. 
 
 THE FIRST LANDMARK. 
 
 Answer in ink each question separately, giving the date. 
 
 1. Are you in absolutely perfect health?... 
 
 2. Are you in apparently perfect health? 
 
 3. Are you in fair health only? 
 
 If you answer "yes" to any one of the first three questions 
 
 you must consider yourself in Class One. 
 
 4. Are you in rather poor health generally? 
 
 5. Are you ill, but not ill enough to call in a physician? 
 
 6. Have you general ill-health which is ascribed to a torpid 
 
 liver, indigestion, or nervous trouble? 
 
 7. Have you any organic disease? 
 
 8. Are you irritable at times when alone? 
 
 9. Do you believe that drugs and medicines, while giving tem- 
 
 porary relief, do a permanent injury to the body? 
 
 10. Do you believe that a person by care and special attention 
 
 may acquire absolutely perfect and permanent health, no 
 matter how sick such person may be? 
 
 11. Do you believe that a person, who has for years neglected 
 
 health and wantonly abused its laws until the blood is 
 poor, the organs weak, and the general constitution broken 
 down, may, by strict attention to the Four Cardinal Points 
 
 of Health, recover the full vigor of life? 
 
 Your answers to these questions should be carefully pre- 
 served in this book, and once every year thereafter they should be 
 referred to, for the sake of comparison. You will then learn their 
 importance. 
 
80 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 (FIRST POINT OF HEALTH.) 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF GLAME 
 
 3f 
 
 HEAR a sound of life— of life like ours— 
 Of life in separate courses flowing out 
 Like our four rivers to some outward main 
 I hear life— life ! 
 
 3frs. Brovming. 
 
 ' I belieoe in glame as I belieoe I hace that tcitbin me tchich lioes." — Shaftesbury. 
 
 LAME is the source of vitality ; and becomes the vital- 
 source present in every specimen of living matter, 
 whether animal or vegetable. If a student, possessed 
 only of ordinary ability, were to think studiously of 
 life he would stop at that impassable barrier, the origin 
 of vitality. If a scientist, as profound and skilful as 
 any can be, were to tell the world of this vitality, he would be able 
 to describe only its results, not the power itself. It is our intention, 
 on the threshold of this description, to show that GLAME is dealt 
 with in daily life. The word means vitality ; but we use it to 
 describe only that vitality which tends to establish perfect health. 
 It will be more readily understood if we say that glame is vigor of 
 life, or the spark of life, or that vital principle which maintains life. 
 Chemicals have vitality, but no glame; an acid is full of 
 chemical energy, but has not one particle of glame. There are 
 mechanical forces all about us, as heat, cold, steam, expansion, 
 contraction, gravity and electricity ; but none of them is associated 
 with the spark of life. The wonderful body in which we dwell is 
 capable of chemical analysis, but only when it is dead. A drop 
 of blood, a piece of bone or flesh, is but a compound of cells; 
 and, as chemical energies, they are easily analyzed. The basis of 
 all animal life is the cell of protoplasm ; the basis of all vegetable 
 life is the cell of protoplasm ; both are alike ; they are the same ; 
 the vegetable existed first ; the animal is but a composite plant ; 
 man is the union of vegetable cells ; all is based on protoplasm. 
 
 Protoplasm is an uninteresting word. It represents oxygen, 
 nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon, and these terms are very dry as 
 reading matter. The chemist can take from the life-blood's pro- 
 
DESCRIPTION OF GLAME. 81 
 
 toplasm all these four elements ; and no more. He can preserve 
 them, but they are not blood. He can collect, from any sources 
 available, the same four elements and put them together ; but he 
 cannot make them live; they are all there is of blood, yet not 
 blood. How is it, that the exact parts will not produce their 
 original ? They lived. Something, called the spark of life, imbued 
 the combination with vital force. It was impulse. This impulse 
 is glame. 
 
 This impulse is seen in the growth of every species of 
 vegetation and consequently in animal life ; for it is a well estab- 
 lished fact that all matter which goes into the human body or any 
 species of animal life must first be organized in some vegetable 
 Organic vitality is originated, directed and controlled by GLAME^ 
 and when this is gone the life becomes at once a prey to dissolu- 
 tion. To illustrate: milk, just taken from the cow is of the 
 temperature of 98°, and is so charged with GLAME, that its 
 effect upon the health of a persoii drinking it immediately, if 
 relished, is very marked. Let the milk drop to 96° and the 
 GLAME is lost forever. Restore it to 98° and the GLAME is not 
 only not forthcoming, but mechanical vitality takes its place, 
 decay begins; or in other words when GLAME departs from 
 any organic vitality, decay at once commences. This proves the 
 necessity of maintaining and adding to the GLAME of the human 
 bod}^ for as long as it is present death is impossible. But, you 
 say, the milk is more healthful while it retains the natural warmth 
 of the cow, because it has the life of the cow in it. Well, this is 
 GLAME. Now you understand what GLAME is like, do you 
 not? Yet no scientist has ever been able to measure, describe or 
 analyze this subtle influence. 
 
 Another instance is seen in the death of any life. The life 
 itself is GLAME; but is called organic vitality; and its passing 
 away is distinctly traceable in its effect upon other lives present 
 All physicians know that if a person is standing in a slaughter 
 house near the cattle at the time life is passing from the cattle, 
 some of that life enters the person. This is GLAME. Consumpn 
 tives are often ordered by their physicians to drink blood loarm 
 from the dying ox, or other animal. This is to absorb GLAME. 
 In a moment the subtle power is gone. All physicians and a 
 large number of the reading people know what is meant by 
 GLAME. But, you ask, if milk and meat lose their GLAME 
 
82 THE R/iLSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 in a few minutes, are they then not nutritious? Yes. The 
 mechanical elements required by the body are taken into the 
 blood, as a part of the mechanical structure of the body only, and 
 GLAME must be united with them by other processes which 
 we shall soon state. Glowing vitality is generated wherever 
 there is growing life, and this vigor feeds on itself; so that what 
 the food cannot give to the body the vital fund must give to the 
 food. 
 
 Young people have much more GLAME than those past 
 middle life, but the constant presence of one with the other tends 
 to equalize this vitality. Old people who sleep with children 
 draw vitality from them, and the latter grow old fast, while the 
 former assume less of old age. So well established is this fact 
 that a theory of longevity was advanced a generation ago and 
 endorsed by the ablest scientists, which declared that an old man 
 could renew his youth by keeping about him continually a few 
 robust children. The principle is still sound, and many present 
 cases might be cited. 
 
 Man has wonderful inventive power, but the life-spark 
 eludes his experimental grasp. With all his science and skill, he 
 cannot create or start into operation one fibre or cell of organic 
 life, for he cannot control the GLAME that gives it vitality. If a 
 person were lying dead, electricity or magnetism might impart to 
 the muscles and nerves certain contracting or convulsive move- 
 ments which resemble life ; but would not give it. If we could 
 draw from the elements of nature all the substances and fluids 
 necessary to make the human body, if we could build the frame, 
 encase the skeleton with skin, place the organs in proper position 
 and fill the structure with arteries and veins as perfect as the 
 Creative Genius of the world has done ; if, in fact, the skill of 
 man could complete a human being ready to receive the spark of 
 life, to breathe and move and take within itself an immortal soul, 
 there is no device known, even to the wizard electrician, whereby 
 the soul could utilize the body as a living frame until the life- 
 principle, called GLAME, should start the fire within. 
 
 The importance of glame may be seen in the fact that it 
 throws a buoyant feeling, exactly similar to the happiness of 
 youth, into the nature even of an old person. It is quickly 
 developed. An author had sent his manuscript, which represented 
 the labor of years, to a dozen publishers with unvarying failure. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF GLAME. 83 
 
 One day he received word that the work had been accepted. With 
 the joyful news burning in his heart he resolved to go to his home 
 and family at night with the same serious face, and unchanged 
 manners. He succeeded admirably, as ^thought; but his wife 
 noticed a brightness in his eye, and felt a warmth of joy as he 
 entered the house. He was, as we say, happy. It was electrical 
 vitality. A vast amount of GLAME had entered the system, and 
 the result was happiness. A man at a theatre during the per- 
 formance felt the power of the acting until it seemed to him like 
 real life, and he applauded. Another man heard that his nation's 
 flag had been fired upon, and a thrill of patriotism filled his heart. 
 He was a transformed man. Napoleon, by a few words, swayed 
 his soldiers to deeds of daring almost without parallel. Orators 
 sway audiences. Good news thrills us with joy. Success, triumph, 
 pride, hope, trust, ambition, zeal, all are exhibitions of a life within, 
 known as electrical vitality^ and attended by more GLAME than can 
 be extracted in a day from warm blood, or departing life. Here is 
 a lesson for us. 
 
 Milk, warm from the cow, is charged with glame. New 
 grass to the cattle is full of it, when eaten growing. New peas, 
 fresh from the garden and cooked within a short time, taste quite 
 different from those that are procured at the store the day after 
 they are picked ; and the same is true of all nourishing vegetables. 
 The closer we get to growing life, the more we see of this principle. 
 This fact is illustrated by the method in which an eminent chemist 
 was convinced of the reality of glame. He said he proposed to 
 deny that there was such a thing as glame (or the vital spark) 
 until we proved it to him. 
 
 The manner of proof proceeded as follows : We asked him 
 how many chemical elements there were in the human body. He 
 replied, fourteen. We then asked what would happen if these 
 fourteen elements were eaten as chemicals merely. He said they 
 would destroy the body, instead of feeding it. " Under what cir- 
 cumstances would these elements feed the body ? " was the next 
 question. "They must have lived, have had growth, and have 
 developed life in themselves." " Then is it a fact that the same 
 elements may possess chemical vitality, and yet not have the vital- 
 ity which is known as the life-principle ?" " Yes; but science can- 
 not explain life. No chemist can get hold of it. But we all know 
 that it exists." " Now, is it true that life in some cases is more 
 
84 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 vigorous than in others?" "Yes." " If you wished to describe 
 that vigor of life which is most buoyant, how would you do it? " 
 "I would follow the example of other invest gators, and coin a 
 new word to fit the case." " Do you approve o.Hhe word glameV 
 "Yes, if you will let me define it. Glame is natural vitality 
 involving the most vigorous impulse of the life-prii.ciple. If you 
 keep within the limits of this definition, you will have no conflict 
 with scientists." We replied that his description exactly coin- 
 cided with our own. 
 
 A person who will state that there is no such thing as 
 glame is not honest. Experiments prove the fact be> sDd all doubt. 
 It is always exhilaration. Anyone who desires to know the out- 
 ward evidences of glame may easily find thtm in the following 
 facts : Glame exhilarates. All natural exhilaration is the result 
 of glame. Natural cheerfulness is accompanied by, and generates 
 glame. Bad news will stop digestion and affect the appetite. 
 Good news will not only aid digestion, but cheerfulness will cause 
 the blood to assimilate a greater proportion of nutriment from 
 the same amount of food. If this is not glame, what is it ? It 
 is something or nothing. Test cheerfulness. If natural, the 
 breathing is deeper and more vital. More than half of all head- 
 aches are directly traceable to the lack of even ordinary respiration. 
 A person whose vitality is normal could never catch cold, and 
 could not possibly take disease. We call vitality glame. If vital- 
 ity does not exist, then glame does not. But glame is in the cause 
 as well as in the presence of vitality. 
 
 DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING GLAME. 
 
 That which is unworthy of attention is not discussed. 
 The papers have had much to say about glame. In a large city, a 
 newspaper owner sent for a prominent merchant and said : " I 
 understand that you are a Ralstonite. The patent medicine men 
 tell me that glame is nonsense." The merchant replied : " My dear 
 sir, you are making a large draft on your honesty and self-respect, 
 in criticising what you never tried to find out. Give glame a trial. 
 It costs nothing. You saw me a year ago, you see me to-day. Is 
 that nonsense? If so, then the fact that I am above ground, and 
 not under it, is nonsense also." The editor became a member, and 
 recently sent a private letter to many of his friends, advising them 
 to join the Club. 
 
85 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 GLAME EXERCISE. 
 
 *5fOY is the mainspring in the whole 
 c*^ Of endless Natxu^'s calm rotation. 
 Joy moves the dazzling wheels that roll 
 In the great time-piece of creation, 
 
 Schiller. 
 
 The flutter o% jog that brightens the heart is like a flower breaking forth 
 its petals."— SAa/jEesimrj/. 
 
 HE main work of the present volume is devoted to those 
 members of the Health Club who are either in perfect 
 health and desire to retain it, or are in fairly good health 
 and wish to perfect it. This may be done by observing 
 two things. 
 
 1st. Filling the system with GLAME. 
 2nd. Supporting this GLAME by proper food. 
 The present chapter is devoted to first experiences only. 
 The claim of the author is substantially that man has never 
 used the vital principle whose presence fills the entire universe. 
 The past few years have been prolific in proofs of this natural 
 power ; and this fact coupled with our knowledge of thousands of 
 cures in recent months, and the experiments made, warrant the 
 following statement : 
 
 1. The accumulation of GLAME in the system, will increase the 
 vitalizing energy which supports life. 
 
 2. It is furnished by Naiure. 
 
 3. It is not a stimulant to life, but Life itself, and consequently 
 increases life rastead of consuming it, as stimulants and medicines do, 
 
 4. It will guard the body against disease. 
 
 5. It will overcome diseases, especially chronic and organic troubles; 
 in that it is a destroyer of bacteria and an eliminator of animal soil. 
 
 6. It will prolong life as long as it is kept in the system. 
 
 7. By simple efforts it may be kept in the system for many years 
 beyond the ordinary duration of life. 
 
 Glame is accumulated in the following ways : 
 1st. In the physical body, organs and muscles, by the exer- 
 cises and regime of the Ralston Health Club. 
 
86 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 2nd. In the nerves and brain by the exercises of the Twen- 
 tieth Degree Course of Training, entitled " TAe Cultivation of Personal 
 Magnetism.^^ 
 
 HOW SHALL WE KNOW WHEN GLAME ENTERS THE SYSTEM? 
 
 This is the all important question. It does not knock loudly 
 to announce its approach, and it makes no demonstration when 
 it comes. It enters so gradually and its increase is of so fine a 
 nature, that only by the utmost attention to the inward feeling 
 can we at first detect its presence. It often happens that GLAME 
 is present in great abundance, yet the person does not know it. A 
 gleam of brightness in the eye is sure evidence of this new life. 
 However, there is a class of people, generally those who have 
 passed thirty years of life, where the vitality of the early GLAME 
 has ebbed so far that the acquisition of a new supply is more 
 distinctly felt by contrast with the loss, who will recognize the 
 approach of GLAME at the very beginning of our exercises. 
 
 There is another class of persons of fine nervous organism 
 and quick brain perception who will recognize this GLAME even 
 more readily than the class just referred to. To them its presence 
 will impart a buoyancy of spirit, a kind of ecstasy of feeling that 
 will be very marked. Others of our members will not perceive the 
 presence of GLAME so readily, but will surely detect its entrance 
 into the body by unmistakable feelings, although slighter in their 
 nature. A very delicate and fine sensation will be experienced, 
 accompanied by a little stronger beating of the heart. As GLAME 
 becomes more abundant the pulse will become firmer, the skin 
 will take on a more healthy hue, the eye will grow brighter, the 
 step become more elastic, and day by day life will grow more 
 joyous. 
 
 preliminary EXERCISES FOR ACQUIRING QLAME. 
 
 Ist Principle. — GLAME is a vitality present in oxygen, or oxy- 
 gen that has been vitalized by sunlight. It is found in the shade as 
 well as in the moderate warmth of the direct sunshine; but it 
 is never present except in moving air upon which the sun has 
 shone. 
 
 2d Principle. — GLAME is attracted by energy and is lost by 
 lassitude. 
 
 8d Principle. — Oxygen, being the most energetic of the elements 
 affecting human life, draws GLAME to itself. 
 
GLAME EXERCISE. 87 
 
 4th Principle. — GLAME enters the body with the oxygen that 
 we breathe, and passes out of the body with every exhalation. It 
 is thus wasted and lost. 
 
 5th Principle. — To separate Glame from oxygen while in the 
 lungs requires a drawing power of greater energy than oxygen 
 itself; which, in a corrupt or new chemical compound, leaves the 
 body with each exhalation. 
 
 6th Principle. — The energy of the body is in the nerves, which 
 form the source of all physical power. 
 
 7th Principle. — Nerve energy is made manifest by an exercise 
 known as the tensing exercise. 
 
 8th Principle. — Performance of the tensing exercise while oxy- 
 gen is retained in the lungs will draw GLAME from it in quanti- 
 ties, depending upon the amount of air in the lungs. 
 
 9th Principle. — Air in motion, upon which the sun is shining 
 or has recently shone, imparts the largest possible (quantity of 
 GLAME to oxygen ; therefore, performing the tensing exercises 
 while breathing such air quickly draws it into the system. 
 
 The experiments are now at hand. The members of this 
 Health Club, even if they are blessed with large chests, probably 
 do not have more than one-tenth of the lung capacity developed. 
 The other nine-tenths remains dormant. It is a shame that people 
 neglect a thing which means so much to the human race — the 
 development of the lungs. No matter what may be the size of the 
 chest, it does not follow that the lungs are correspondingly devel- 
 oped, for muscular size without and the presence of the fatty tissue 
 within may often pass for large lungs, especially in athletes, who, 
 instead of living to a good old age, as a rule die young, and often 
 of consumption. Fully developed lungs require the opening of 
 the minute air cells within the chest frame, and especially the 
 lower portion of it. Therefore, if you wish to draw into the sys- 
 tem large quantities of GLAME, it is necessary to develop the 
 lungs more and more each day and week and month you live. 
 Even in persons of very weak lung capacity the following exercises 
 are sure to establish this better vitality. 
 
 FIRST EXERCISE. 
 
 Sit or stand perfectly still in any place where the air is in 
 motion, or has recently been in motion, however lightly, and upon 
 which the sun has shone. It is not necessary to sit in the sun. 
 FiU the lungs to their utmost capacity and hold the breath long 
 
88 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 enough to count three and no more. The time should be about 
 three seconds. Let the breath escape very slowly. Repeat by 
 drawing in the fullest possible breath and hold four seconds and 
 no more. Let the breath out very slowly. Repeat by drawing 
 in the breath very gradually and hold for five seconds. Always 
 inhale through the nose, if possible. 
 
 SECOND EXERCISE. 
 
 Empty the lungs completely; inhale a quick short breath 
 through the nostrils without hearing the breath pass in ; instead 
 of allowing this to escape immediately add another quick short 
 breath to it ; and keep on so doing until the lungs are packed full. 
 This may be carried on until the air in the lungs becomes con- 
 densed by the force of the inhalations, provided it does not result 
 in coughing. Bear down on the shoulders while inhaling, and 
 never raise the shoulders under any circumstances. 
 
 This exercise may be repeated as often as desired, but as it 
 may cause an unpleasant feeling it is best not to overdo it. 
 
 THIRD EXERCISE. 
 
 Fill the lungs full, clasp with the right hand, and with the left a 
 piece of wood about the diameter of a broom handle. For gentle- 
 men a broom handle of large diameter will suffice, and for ladies 
 one of smaller diameter. Clasp this as gently as possible while 
 holding the breath for three seconds. It is at this stage of the 
 work that a faint presence of GLAME will be detected, although 
 not till after many trials in some persons. It enters the body, 
 whether felt or not. 
 
 FOURTH EXERCISE. 
 
 The fourth and last glame-exercise is the most effective. It 
 is very important in its results, if practiced with care. First, be 
 sure of pure vitalized air. Second, prepare by emptying the lungs, 
 and still keep on emptying them after you think you cannot 
 breathe out any more air. Third, you are now ready : inhale 
 slowly, steadily, smoothly, irresistibly until the lungs are com- 
 pletely filled. Fourth, as soon as you commence to breathe in, 
 bring a very light pressure to bear on the glame-sticks in your 
 hands and gently increase this pressure as you are inhaling. 
 Fifth, during the time the air is being inhaled, accompanied by 
 the gently increasing pressure, think intently upon some very 
 pleasant subject. 
 
89 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 GLAME, THE HOPE OF HEALTH. 
 
 9|9EHIND the cloud the starlight lurks 
 ^^ Through showers the sunbeams fall ; 
 For God who loveth all his works, 
 Has left his Hope with all. 
 
 WhiUier. 
 
 'Glatne is a silent, subtle, cital, marrellous influence, that builds new lite in sicklq 
 
 flesh."— Shajleifbury. 
 
 EDICAL books tell us that when the oxygen from the 
 inhaled air meets the carbon of the body, the tissues 
 are carbonized, that is, burned. Heat takes place; so 
 great that, if it were not for the outgoing breaths, 
 the flesh would burn. If you run fast you breathe 
 fast and the tissues are carbonized so rapidly that you 
 are compelled to breathe faster in order to throw ofif this heat. 
 This is mechanical. Electricity has a heat that may be made 
 most intense. Glame is to heat what electricity is to fire. It is 
 the foe of bacteria. 
 
 A simple experiment may be made with oxygen ; yet it 
 will save human life, and has saved many. Garden soil, or barn- 
 yard soil, contains lock-jaw germs. They are bacteria and deadly 
 enemies. A man is kicked by a horse, the dirt from whose shoe 
 is scratched into his skin ; or he steps on a nail lying in the soil. 
 In nine cases out of ten lock-jaw germs (we call them by this 
 name as people understand what is meant) will get in the flesh. 
 If the wound heals, they thrive, develop, and kill the man. A 
 surgeon will open the wound and expose it to the air ; knowing 
 well that oxygen will kiU the germs and save the man's life. 
 Glame, or vitalized oxygen, within the lungs will destroy the 
 tubercles of consumption ; will eUminate the cheesy soil in which 
 they thrive ; and will heal the wounds, although consumed lungs 
 cannot be restored. Autopsies often show that men and women 
 have had tuberculosis that has been healed by accident. There 
 are people living in health today with a part of a lung gone. 
 
 Nothing is freer than GLAME and nothing is easier to draw 
 into the body. If we were to describe it in terms of praise, we 
 
90 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 should say it was the golden gift of the Creator, worth more than 
 wealth or power, for it gives us the means of acquiring both ; 
 worth more than fruits or food, for it is the source that feeds 
 them ; worth more than health and happiness, for it supplies the 
 first and brings the second. The energy of the body is in the 
 nerves. Oxygen also contains energy which causes GLAME to 
 associate itself with this chemical element. A greater energy than 
 oxygen is necessary to draw it from its association. This greater 
 energy is in the nerves and is probably of a magnetic or electric 
 character. 
 
 If the hand suddenly closes with great power, the nerves 
 act instantly and affect only the muscles. Any sudden use of 
 muscular strength develops the activity and power of the muscles 
 only. The nerves take on no growth. But if the hand is placed 
 upon a round piece of wood so lightly that it seems to be entirely 
 devoid of strength, not able in fact to hold up its own weight, and 
 then gradually begins to show muscular power, but in a very slight 
 degree, evenly and smoothly keep tightening its grasp until it 
 develops the utmost strength of which it is capable, then the 
 nerves are called into active play by what is known as the tension 
 exercises. The lighter the grasp at the beginning, the stronger its 
 power at the end, with a regular graded increase from this weak- 
 ness and this strength, the more energy will be displayed by the 
 nerves. Holding the breath while performing the tension exer- 
 cises will cause the GLAME which is associated with the oxygen 
 to leave it and pass directly into the nerves, going at once to the 
 fountain of the vitality of the body, whence it reappears in a 
 richer condition of the blood and a healthier activity of all the 
 functions of life. 
 
 Of the thousands of reports concerning GLAME and its 
 speedy effects on the health, most of which were concurred in by 
 physicians, the majority said that the gentle pressure of the clinched 
 hand, very gradually increased, but never with full strength, 
 developed by far the largest quantities of this vitality. To a 
 person who has once felt true GLAME the following methods of 
 drawing it at will from the oxygen in the lungs will be understood 
 and appreciated : 
 
 a. Take a gentle breath very calmy. When the lungs are 
 easily full, but not crowded, close the hand so lightly that the 
 most delicate pressure is felt Think of the happiest prospect 
 
GLAME, THE HOPE OF HEALTH, 91 
 
 possible in your heart. A flutter of ecstacy will follow so plainly 
 that its presence will teem with ^'itality. Force, haste, impatience, 
 ill humor or disbelief will destroy all chances of drawing GLAME. 
 
 h. Repeat the foregoing exercise by the will alone, without 
 any action of the hand. 
 
 c. If stupidity, sluggishness or ennui may be classed as your 
 troublesome attendants, draw GLAME and see how quickly they 
 disappear. Some persons cannot or do not acquire GLAME. On 
 investigation we find that they do not follow the directions even 
 in the slightest degree. They read but part of the book. The 
 probability is they will not see this page at all. If the surgeon 
 knows that the only way in which he can save human hfe is to let 
 oxygen into a wound containing tetanus-bacteria j if a long roU 
 of lives rescued from death by vitalized oxygen, or glame, is evi- 
 dence of the power of Nature; is not the study of these pages 
 worth more than the mere reading? 
 
 We have that within us which lives. This piece of life is 
 only a part of the great pulsing power of the universe, — of the 
 Sun if we wish to speak the truth, although that Sun is the 
 embodiment of a still higher power. If the life within us should 
 die it would find some new matter to attach itself to, and thus 
 prove its dying was merely a change. It is for ourselves to decide 
 how long that life shall stay with us, for as soon as the body wears 
 out we cannot expect to retain it. 
 
 WHAT GLAME DOES FOR A PERSON. 
 
 The body is a net work of nerves, of which the brain is the 
 most active. Throughout the entire system are ganglionic cells, 
 whose sole duty is to secrete and store away the electrical vitality 
 which feeds the life of the brain, organs and muscles. These cells 
 are said by scientists to thinh, because they contain gray matter 
 just like that which constitutes the brain. AMiether they are 
 capable of thinking or not is immaterial at this time ; but that 
 they form the STORAGE BATTERY of the body is true; and 
 they abound everywhere. See Figure 18, on next page. 
 
 1. A ganglionic cell, or electrical nerve-center, in which 
 GLAME is very weak. The thousands of these cells in the body 
 would indicate nervous prostration, if general ; or special organic 
 prostration, if confined in their weakness to one locality. 
 
 2. This ganglionic cell shows the storage of gray matter in 
 somewhat greater abundance than in Number 1. The gray matter 
 
92 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 brings with it vitality, or nervous health. A person would have 
 more life, more exuberance of spirits, more GLAME, and conse- 
 quently would be less irritable than if the cells were in the condi- 
 tion shown in Number 1, of Figure 18. 
 
 3. This ganglionic cell is the average of good health. Prac- 
 tice in GLAME increases the gray matter and adds rapidly to the 
 vitality of the body ; and vitality is shown in its increased size. 
 
 4. This cell is magnetized or electrical, and is ever present in 
 a person of magnetic power. 
 
 5. This figure shows the fine condition of each of the thou- 
 sands of ganglionic cells in the body of one who is largely endowed 
 with personal magnetism, or excessive electrical energy, the grandest 
 type of manhood and womanhood. 
 
 Fig. 18. 
 Storage battery of the human body. 
 
 The medical books tell us that these cells are connected by 
 fibrous threads with all the nervous, organic, and muscular life of 
 the body ; that they are the nerve centers that collect the vital 
 principle and feed it to every part of the system. Supposing a 
 person to be troubled with heart failure, or weakness of the heart 
 in any form, the cells that feed vitality to that great organ will be 
 weak and slim ; and the same is true in a marked degree in the 
 case of indigestion. Cheerfulness in the midst of activity begets 
 vitality ; and the GLAME exercises increase this power. 
 
 A person, by continuing the GLAME exercises, would develop 
 cells from the comparative size indicated in Number 1 to that of 
 Number 4 ; the larger vitality shown in Number 5 being developed 
 by the exercises of the Twentieth Degree book. Personal Magnetism.'*^ 
 
 •"Personal Magnetism," $4. Address Martyn College, Washington, D. C, P.O.Box 
 291. Ask for sixth edition, containing a steel i)ortrait of Edmund Shaftesbury. We 
 recommend thLs work to all persons who cannot feel the energy of GLAME ; and to all who 
 wish to develop a life-saving power.— TAe Publishers. 
 
GLAME, THE HOPE OF HEALTH. 93 
 
 This disassociating of GLAME from oxygen and entering 
 into the body will make itself felt the very second the increase of 
 pressure of the hand is begun. The person experimenting should 
 be careful to note the effect of this as soon as it begins, for it is 
 the most important epoch in the history of our bodies when we 
 commence voluntarily to draw GLAME into the system. It is a 
 new birth. 
 
 The exercise should be carefully performed while the person 
 is sitting perfectly still, not moving a single muscle except in the 
 hands as described. It is well to practice alone at first until sure 
 of the entrance of GLAME into the body, and then a Local 
 Ralston Club should meet and practice it together, and each in 
 turn should be permitted to relate his or her experience and state 
 what percentage of GLAME as far as can be estimated is drawn 
 into the body. A very delicate degree of happiness is evidence of 
 remarkable strength of GLAME. 
 
 No person should be permitted to participate in this practice 
 who is not a member of the Ralston Health Club, as all others 
 would lack permanent interest ; and after a few trials would make 
 light of the exercises. 
 
 LOCAL RALSTON CLUBS. 
 
 We believe in Local Ralston Clubs, for they accomplish much 
 good ; and we particularly believe that they should be both private 
 and exclusive. You may have one of your own, by founding it 
 according to the plan of the Book of Complete Membership, in 
 the legislative division of that volume. It will give you prestige, 
 it will give you influence in your community, and above all it will 
 afford you and others the opportunity of practicing these most 
 important exercises together. 
 
 HOW TO ESTIMATE THE PERCENTAGE OF OLAME. 
 
 If no buoyancy of feeling, no firmness of heart-beat, or no 
 new sensation is present while performing the exercise, write down 
 the percentage as nothing, using the zero. 
 
 If the slightest is felt, but not strong enough to be recognized, 
 make it one per cent. 
 
 If a very faint feeling of exuberance or buoyancy is felt, but 
 exceedingly fine and delicate, mark it five per cent. 
 
 If a feeling of buoyancy strong enough to be easily detected, 
 but no more, is felt, mark it ten per cent. 
 
94 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Proceed in this way by fives until an unmistakable quantity of 
 GLAME of great power is experienced, leaving the body for some 
 seconds after the exercise is over in an exhilarated state. This 
 would be ranked as one hundred per cent ; f of this as seventy-five 
 per cent ; i as fifty per cent ; ? as twenty-five per cent ; depending 
 upon the brain and fine nervous temperament of the person 
 experimenting. 
 
 In estimating the percentage, the person is allowed to use his 
 or her discretion and good judgment until this new property is 
 quite under control ; after which there will very rarely be any 
 serious errors in estimation. 
 
 We ask you to send us a letter as soon as you discover the 
 presence of GLAME, telling us what you estimate your percent- 
 age to be. All members of the Health Club who can, should 
 meet or correspond and compare the results of experiments in 
 the acquisition of GLAME and note the corresponding increase of 
 health. 
 
 Some persons are so affected by the first approach of GLAME 
 that they feel an irresistible desire to shout for joy. The throat 
 swells, the heart leaps, and the eyes dilate. 
 
 MEMBERS' EXPERIMENTS WITH GLAME. 
 
 During the last six years we have received many thousands 
 of reports from Ralstonites, all of which have been eagerly read 
 by us, although we regret that it was impossible to answer them, 
 owing to the tremendous volume of our correspondence. As 
 innumerable questions have been asked us concerning GLAME, 
 we take this opportunity of answering them all through the 
 mouths of our members ; for the following statements are extracts 
 from the reports sent us. We select the best in every possible 
 variety, knowing that they present the results of GLAME practice 
 in all contingencies and under all conditions. As the communica- 
 tions were made to us in private, and as we are under contract 
 with all our members not to disclose their names, we can only 
 describe them in a general way. 
 
 A merchant, sixty-one years of age, says : " I felt glame dis- 
 tinctly the first trial. My face burned. My head seemed clearer 
 than it had been for years. The feeling was real." 
 
 An invalid gentleman, forty -eight years of age, says : " The 
 first trial brought glame. I read the directions carefully, so that 
 
GLAME, THE HOPE OF HEALTH. 06 
 
 I knew I was right. I felt dizzy and came near falling, but it 
 was the clearing away of the sluggish blood. In a few minutes I 
 wanted to shout for joy; but I did not, for I believe in the 
 moderate acceptance of everything new. I am satisfied that glame 
 is as real as light, heat, or electricity." 
 
 A lady in middle life, says : "At first I felt glame distinctly ; 
 but on the second and third trials I did not notice it at all. This, 
 I am now sure, was due to my carelessness, as the book told me. 
 I can always feel it now, and it seems like a new kind of life." 
 
 A young lady says : " I have been a victim of the * blues,' 
 almost being driven to insanity by them ; but since I have prac- 
 ticed glame I never have them, that is, I can throw them off 
 instantly. It is simply ecstacy." 
 
 A college professor says : "Among things new and yet old, is 
 your glame exercise. It is a lost art restored. It is new to this 
 age. Yet something akin to it must have been experienced in the 
 days when men lived centuries. I have tried it hundreds of times 
 and find that I have come into a new lease of life, — thanks to you." 
 
 A gentleman of forty-five, an ex-mayor, says: "The first 
 time I attempted the glame exercise I felt a tingling sensation 
 over my entire body. A personal acquaintance who was in the 
 room, tried it, and felt faint for a few seconds, then shouted out 
 loud. He had been a Ralstonite for some months, and had tried 
 to try glame, but never went at it right. He said he thought at 
 first there was nothing in it." 
 
 An elderly gentleman, an ex-Governor, says : "I have failed 
 more than half the times I have endeavored to feel what you call 
 glame ; but when I have succeeded the effect has always been 
 decided. I was very feeble, but this exercise alone has given me 
 new life, because it has given me the substance of a new vitality." 
 
 A well-known physician says: "As a close student of the 
 science of phenomena, I could not place glame in any hitherto 
 discovered realm. It was then logical to regard it as a species of 
 imagination. But no one knows what imagination really is, 
 although all realize its terrible effects at times. It can kill a 
 strong man, it can cure an invalid. Glame never hurts, it always 
 does good. When I am wearied with my professional duties, I 
 practice glame, often thinking of something else ; and this proves 
 to me that it is not imagination but reality, for I am refreshed at 
 once. The real fact is, glame is life ; but life is mystery." 
 
96 THE RALSTOhl HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 A lady of social prominence says: "I shouted aloud at my 
 first experience with glame. It was so very distinct and clear. I 
 never felt anything like it." 
 
 A banker and retired merchant says: "You may put me down 
 for one hundred per cent in glame. My first twenty or more trials 
 were failures ; but at length I got it. I felt a strong light in, through 
 and all around my body. I seemed to walk on air. It was as 
 though I was an electric battery all aglow. I have no trouble now 
 getting glame." 
 
 A clergyman says: "Your exercises are all you claim for 
 them. You may be interested to know that I practice them daily, 
 and have for more than a year. From a mental and physical 
 wreck of twelve months ago, I have come into the possession of 
 the most remarkable health." 
 
 Another clergyman says ; " I notice that, in your recent edi- 
 tion, you omit a statement regarding glame, which appeared in 
 one of the earlier editions ; referring to the ancient use of glame 
 in Nature. I believe that statement to be true. I feel sure that it 
 is the only way of accounting for the remarkable longevity of 
 ancient times." 
 
 We might go on enumerating the various experiences of those 
 who have tested glame. Some remarkable uses of this subtle power 
 are stated in Our Existences^ where the vital spark of life is shown 
 to be a part of the same great law of glame. 
 
 *In " Our Existences" there will be found a more thorough analysis of the life which 
 leaves the body, not only of animals, but of human beings. Many instances are given of 
 the passing away of human life, and well attested facts are furnished, showing that other 
 vitalities and even objects are affected by human death. 
 
 The practice of glame tends always in one direction, to make 
 the human body healthier, and the human being brighter, better, 
 and nobler. It is worth trying, now and always. 
 
 The theory on which glame destroys the germs of disease, is 
 this : the physical life of the body generates warmth, as is easily 
 proved by running a few rods; the nerve-life of the body generates 
 electricity, as is proved in the book on the cultivation of personal 
 magnetism ; electricity, when developed by the will power from self- 
 efforts (and in no other way), is internal and reaches all germs of 
 disease, destroying them instantly, as lightning kills. Glame is 
 electrical, though not magnetic. It is able to destroy all disease- 
 germs even in the lungs, as in consumption. 
 
07 
 
 CHAPTER XXIT. 
 
 (second point of health.) 
 
 NATURE OF FOOD. 
 
 IS thirst he slakes 
 
 At some piire neighboring brook, 
 Nor seeks for sauce 
 
 Where appetite stands cook. 
 
 ChurchiU. 
 
 'The bodi) cannot thrice on food that tcill not suppig its needs."— Shaftesbury. 
 
 OOD includes whatever adds substance to the body, to 
 supply a new growth in place of that which is lost by 
 daily waste. This growth may fall below the amount 
 required to maintain the same size and weight: in 
 w^hich case there is a loss. It may be about equal to 
 the daily waste, in which case there is a continuance of 
 the same size and weight. It may be in excess of the daily waste, 
 in which case the body increases, as in the case of the child whose 
 GLAME, furnished by Nature, is in larger proportion than in the 
 maturer man. 
 
 Food may consist of many things, which wiU be separately 
 stated in this chapter; but over and above all in importance is 
 oxygen. Oxygen is the first, foremost, greatest and most active 
 element that can be taken into the system ; no other matter can 
 equal it in importance whether it is found in what we eat, drink 
 or breathe. A person is nearly three-fourths oxygen. It is present 
 in great abundance in air, water and food, and nothing changes 
 more readily than this from one form to another. Mingled with cer- 
 tain elements it becomes air, with others water, and again it is solid. 
 Without it fire cannot bum, and all food-eating creation would 
 instantly die. What then shall we do ? 
 
 The different elements, from which the earth and all that 
 exists in the universe are made, are few in number; and of this 
 number fourteen are necessary to make the human body. The 
 particles of which the body is composed are of the earth and from 
 the earth ; and before they can enter into the human organism they 
 must have been organized by Nature, and thus be charged with the 
 power of becoming a part of life. This is the foundation of all 
 
98 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 food and we must not lose sight of so important a principle. But 
 this organization must take place in some vegetable. Man eats two 
 kinds of food : 1st. That of food-eating creation ; 2nd. Vegetation. 
 The first we call meat, the second is selected from the vast division 
 of life which includes plants, roots, herbs, seeds, grasses, fruits, etc. 
 Meat fit for food is found in the bodies of animal life which feeds 
 on vegetation, and all other meat is unfit for food. 
 
 Aside from the question of fitness, it is a fact that all 
 life must originate in some vegetable ; and all unorganized matter 
 is unfit for food ; and likewise all matter that has once formed a 
 part of some food but has since been deorganized is no longer fit 
 for the body. The absurdity of taking iron in any deorganized 
 form to supply the lack of this element in the blood, is seen in 
 many cases of invalids who have suffered from patent-medicines 
 which furnished this mineral. There is no medicine or mixture 
 now on the market or possible to be made which can furnish 
 iron in organized form. Persons of feeble constitution, especially 
 females, are periodically eating pills, or taking syrups, or other 
 mixtures containing iron, and vainly imagine that it may thus be 
 restored to the blood. The famous French physician, J. Francis 
 Churchill, quotes from Trosseau as follows : " M. Trosseau declares 
 that iron hastens the development of tubercles. The iron may 
 induce a fictitious return to health; the physician may flatter 
 himself that he has succeeded ; but, to his surprise, he will find 
 the patient soon after fall into a phthisical state, from which there 
 is no return. This result M. Trosseau attributes to iron, and he 
 denounces the administration of iron as criminal in the highest 
 degree.^^ 
 
 It is a clear proof of the folly of taking any food into the 
 system which has not been organized in some vegetable ; and yet, 
 as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, there are many kinds of 
 foods, rich in iron, any of which will supply this needed element 
 in the blood ; and it is to these foods that we must have recourse 
 whenever the blood is poor. 
 
 Phosphorus, which is the physical source of all vitality, is 
 essential to health, and is often lacking in the system, because 
 people know nothing of the elements of food required to produce 
 health. The great importance of phosphorus and its general 
 deficiency have encouraged hundreds of medicine venders and 
 patent-drug proprietaries to place upon the market a variety of 
 
NATURE OF FOOD. 99 
 
 phosphorus mixtures, " for the nerves and brain," It is neverthe- 
 less a fact that unorganized phosphorus taken into the system not 
 onl}^ fails utterly to assimilate, but is positively injurious. Any 
 person who knows that foods contain phosphorus in organized form, 
 will go at once to them. Therefore we say that it is the duty 
 of every man, woman and intelligent child to know (1) what are 
 the elements of the body, (2) what are their proportions, and (3) 
 what foods contain these elements and in (4) what proportion. 
 Such knowledge is fully as important as any in life. 
 
 The body is composed of fourteen elements, as follows : 
 
 1. Oxygen. 2. Carbon. 3. Hydrogen. 4. Nitrogen. 5. Cal- 
 cium. 6. Phosphorus. 7. Sulphur. 8. Sodium. 9. Chlorine. 
 10. Fluorine. 11. Iron. 12. Potassium. 13. Magnesium. 14. 
 Silicon. 
 
 These are stated as elements, but are required in combinations. 
 Thus water is a combination of oxygen and hydrogen, and as such 
 combination is needed as food. Without trying the patience of 
 the reader too much by the use of scientific terms we will state 
 the chemical names only of these combinations, and try hereafter 
 to describe all facts in simple, every day language. 
 
 In the human body, there are seventeen combinations of 
 the Fourteen Elements of food: 1. Water. 2. Gelatin. 3. Fat. 
 4. Phosphate of Lime. 5. Albumen. 6. Carbonate of Lime. 
 7. Fibrin. 8. Fluoride of Calcium. 9. Phosphate of Soda. 10. 
 Phosphate of Potash. 11. Phosphate of Magnesia. 12. Chloride 
 of Sodium (common salt). 13. Sulphate of Soda. 14. Carbonate 
 of Soda. 15. Sulphate of Potash. 16. Peroxide of Iron. 17. Silica. 
 
 Our purpose in furnishing a list of the seventeen combi- 
 nations which are found in the body is to give them as they are 
 required in food ; as for instance, in the example of oxygen and 
 hydrogen, which the body receives in the combination called 
 water, although they are in other forms of food also. The process 
 of life in the body has the following divisions : 
 
 1. The governing portion ; consisting of the brain which orders 
 the muscles ; and of the nerves which carry all communications 
 between the brain and the muscles. 
 
 2. The executive portion ; called the muscular system. 
 
 3. The fuel which, by burning (in a chemical sense) in the 
 body, keeps up a supply of heat, which is the source of all 
 activity. 
 
lOO THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Food must therefore supply these three great divisions of the 
 processes of life, and the nature of the food should be determined 
 by its ability to do this. Every day we live we must take into 
 the system every one of the fourteen elements in their seventeen 
 combinations, as before described, or there will be something the 
 matter. The absence of any one element, or its deficiency, will 
 result in some disarrangement tending to sickness and death. 
 This will appear more fully in the next chapter. It is better at 
 the present time to keep the classification of foods in the three 
 great divisions, which furnish : 
 
 1. Vitality ; or brain, nerves and bones. 
 
 2. Strength ; or muscle development. 
 
 3. Heat ; or fat. 
 
 Of the fourteen elements needed in the body, and which 
 must be supplied in the food taken in the system, those which 
 supply the three great demands, vitality, strength and heat, are 
 classified under general terms as follows : the words being used in 
 their popular and not their chemical sense. 
 
 1. The Phosphates, in which phosphorus predominates, supply 
 vitality, or brain, nerves and bones. 
 
 2. The Nitrates, in which nitrogen predominates, supply the 
 muscles with strength. 
 
 3. The Carbonates, in which carbon predominates, supply 
 heat, and make fat. 
 
 It is a sad fact that people in general know nothing of the 
 nature of the food they eat, and many wonder why they are not 
 well. If food contained only carbonates, the person would soon 
 die ; or if the carbonates were in excess, although accompanied by 
 the nitrates, the person would have fever, headache, poor blood, 
 pimples and humors. There is also disarrangement in the system 
 when nitrates or phosphates predominate. 
 
 These three words : carbonates, nitrates and phosphates : 
 should be committed to memory by all persons who intend to 
 enter upon that higher life of health which is provided for Pro- 
 gressive Ralstonites. It is not hard to speak of carbonates as 
 heat-makers ; nitrates as muscle-makers ; and phosphates as brain- 
 makers. The brain is identical in its life with the nervous system, 
 and the phosphates therefore strengthen the brain and nerves, and 
 furnish substance for the bones, after having been useful in sup- 
 plying vitality. 
 
lOl 
 
 CHAPTER XXT. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE USES OF FOOD, 
 
 »HY should a man whose blood is warm within. 
 Sit like his grandslre cut in alabaster? 
 Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice 
 By being peevish? 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 "What toe eat makes us ichat tee are: take phosphorous out of food and the brain 
 of a icisc man becomes that of an idiot."— Shaftesbury. 
 
 T is your duty to learn what proportion of the elements 
 of life are contained in the common articles of daily 
 food. To enable you to do this we shall furnish a 
 " Table of Foods." If the present chapter seems too 
 scientific for you to understand, drop it and read only 
 the next chapter which treats of the art of " Eating for 
 Health." 
 Before studying the present Table of Foods let us first 
 impress our minds with the fact that tables which show the value 
 of food are not to be followed as guides, except as studied in con- 
 nection with the facts laid down in this chapter. For instance, if 
 two kinds of food are equally rich in a certain element, the 
 presence of other elements, or the degree of ease with which it is 
 digested, may afiect its value as food, and these are not apparent 
 in tables. Many tables furnished in medical works are very mis- 
 leading. 
 
 Not one of the fourteen elements remains permanent in 
 the system ; they all have their duties to perform, and then must 
 give way to new supplies of the same elements which must be 
 furnished in the food, or the body suffers. Each organ of the 
 body demands elements peculiar to its own existence, and the 
 particles are taken from the blood from the general mixture of 
 elements which are carried in the circulation. As long as these 
 fourteen elements, if they have been organized in some vegetable, 
 are found in the body in their proper proportion, perfect health 
 must necessarily result ; but if any particles from other elements 
 beside these fourteen enter the system, rebellion follows until the 
 foreign matter is thrown ofi". So also if any of the fourteen ele- 
 
102 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 ments have been deorganized and are introduced into the system, 
 injury follows. It is to supply these elements and to furnish a 
 harmony in the system that we shall suggest certain foods and 
 describe their uses; so that the members of the Health Club may 
 know at each meal the especial value of each kind of food of which 
 they partake. 
 
 Is there any single food which contains the fourteen ele- 
 ments, or in other words which supplies carbonates, phosphates 
 and nitrates ? There are a few that do this, one of which is wheat. 
 The nitrates are found in the outside shell, the carbonates in the 
 main portion, constituting about two-thirds of the entire grain, 
 and the phosphates in the chit or germ. In fine white flour the 
 centre alone is used, consisting of carbonates or heat-producing 
 substance, with but a very slight mixture of nitrates. It is the 
 common evil at all meals to set more heat-producing food before 
 the family than other kinds. White bread, butter and sugar as 
 well as potatoes are all heat-producers, and contain but little else ; 
 and the blood becomes seriously impoverished by inflammations, 
 headaches, fevers and neuralgic pains which follow the use of this 
 one kind of food to the exclusion of the others. Few mothers 
 know that phosphates are demanded for growing children; and 
 yet if they knew this fact they would not be able to tell the foods 
 which furnish phosphorus. The result is that a majority of children 
 die in their infancy ; and many of those who survive grow up with 
 defective teeth, weak muscles and shattered nerves ; all owing to 
 the ignorance of parents upon the subject of food. 
 
 The extensive use of white bread, butter and sugar, 
 potatoes, rice and heat-producing foods is the cause of more 
 fever, diseased bodies, deficient blood and weak nervous systems, 
 and the torments and pains of neuralgia and headache than any 
 other thing; and yet the same food balanced by nitrates and phos- 
 phates, as for instance, lean meat, cheese, milk, etc., in due propor- 
 tion, would furnish perfectly healthy bodies. A man suffering 
 from running sores was found to be living upon the common one- 
 sided diet just described and had been doing so for years ; during 
 which time he could obtain no relief for his malady, although he 
 had taken drugs and medicines, and employed the services of 
 good physicians. After awhile he was advised as to his food and 
 the fourteen elements in their natural proportion were given him 
 in place of his heat-producers; and he was completely restored 
 
THE USES OF FOOD. 103 
 
 to health. Harmony in his body was produced by complying 
 with Nature's requirements. A lady suffered from chronic head- 
 ache that for six years baffled the skill of her physician; the 
 trouble arose from eating one kind of food only, and in this 
 case they were also the carbonates or heat-producers ; and upon 
 changing her diet to that required by Nature she was immediately 
 cured. It is almost a matter of absolute certainty that if a person 
 should indulge only in food which contained nitrates, carbonates 
 and phosphates in due proportion, the majority of all aches and 
 pains would quickly disappear. 
 
 It is a wonderful fact that a grain of wheat contains all the 
 fourteen elements and in very nearly the proper proportion. 
 Whole-wheat bread contains all that the body requires, and it has 
 been proved that it will sustain life indefinitely ; while white bread, 
 which contains but little more than the carbonates, can hardly 
 sustain life for two months unless other food is used with it. A 
 person living on white bread, butter and sugar is depriving the 
 body of nitrates and phosphorus; but the addition of lean meats 
 and cheese will furnish the necessary' elements. 
 
 Whole wheat in grits, or in health bread, is the best food 
 known, because it contains all the fourteen elements in proper pro- 
 portion ; but in cases of diarrhoea or when the bowels are in an 
 irritated state, fine white flour should be temporarily used. Wheat 
 grits or cracked wheat, taken with milk and sugar is a perfect food. 
 By whole wheat is meant the entire grain, not necessarily whole 
 in bulk but whole in elements. Thus fine flour ground from 
 unbolted wheat would be called whole- wheat flour; and bread 
 made from it would be the most healthful food in the world, 
 especially if eaten with honey instead of butter. Honey-comb 
 should not be eaten, but honey in the comb is always safe. The 
 upper and lower layers of wax may be peeled off, allowing the 
 honey to run out. 
 
 Farina with milk and sugar is also a perfect food, and more 
 delicate than either graham bread or wheaten grits. 
 
 Rye is not so good as wheat, but eaten with cheese or meat 
 makes a perfect food, and is valuable to persons who are consti- 
 pated. 
 
 Every intelligent human being should thoroughly under- 
 stand the wonderful structure of the two most important food pro- 
 ducing grains furnished by an all-wise Creator for the nourishment 
 
104 
 
 THE Ry4LSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 of the body. In Figure 19 we see the composition of a grain of 
 wheat, — man's only perfect food. It contains all the fourteen ele- 
 ments of the body in the proportions required, and these element* 
 are classified in three divisions : B — shows the proportion of the 
 brain food, or phosphates, in the chit or germ. This, the most 
 valuable part, is thrown away in white bread. M — the outer shell, 
 contains the muscle-making food ; this is thrown away in white 
 bread, and persons who want strength are fed on white bread and 
 grow weak and tired. H — shows the white center, or the carbon- 
 ates, with a small interior of muscle-making food, thanks to 
 Nature; but man gets this out if he can in his efforts to make fine, 
 white flour. Why disturb the arrangement made by the Creator ? 
 Is it not a fit punishment to the human race that the blood teems 
 with humors, and the head and nerves are racked with headaches, 
 neuralgia and rheumatism ? 
 
 '..M 
 
 Fig. 19. 
 Grain of Wheat. 
 
 Fig. 20. 
 Grain of White Com. 
 
 In Fig. W we find the grain of white or Southern corn, with 
 a large proportion of muscle-food, plenty of brain food and less 
 of heating food. It is the typical nourishment of a brain worker 
 who beheves in exercise, or of those who work with the muscles. 
 Next to wheat it is the best food for humanity. Northern or yellow 
 corn is the reverse of this ; containing a very large proportion of 
 heaters or carbonates, and over-heating the blood, as buckwheat 
 cakes do, causing pimples, sores and headaches. 
 
 Sugar, butter, lard, or animal fats of any kind, are incapable 
 of sustaining life, without any other food, more than from twenty 
 to thirty days; and white flour being mostly starch, has been 
 proved by experiments on animals to be capable of sustaining 
 life, without other food, only from fifty to sixty days. These 
 belong to the carbonates. 
 
THE USES OF FOOD. 106 
 
 Meats, cheese, lean fish, peas and beans in which the muscle- 
 making element is too large in proportion to the heat-producing, 
 would be capable of sustaining life only for a short time without 
 some carbonates to keep sufficient warmth in the body. These 
 belong to the nitrates. 
 
 Shell fish, lean meats, active fishes, birds (and many other 
 foods which support the nerves and brain, and give vital energy 
 of both muscle and mind), are too great for the common duties of 
 life. These belong to the class called phosphates, the smallest 
 but most necessary of all. 
 
 In fi:uits, berries, green vegetables, and many others, there is 
 more waste than nutrition. If they are eaten alone they produce 
 diarrhoea and debility, but if they are taken in connection with 
 food containing more nutrition, they serve the important purpose 
 of keeping the bowels in action, and the systen cool and free by 
 preventing a surplus of more stimulating food. 
 
 Foods not easily digested are better on account of their stay- 
 ing power, and are best for persons who are addicted to strong 
 exercise; while they would not do for the delicate stomachs of 
 sedentary persons. An excellent combination of food for those 
 who exercise in the open air is cheese and corn bread. 
 
 Cheese has nearly three times the nutriment of any other 
 food, and must be taken in small quantities. A weak stomach 
 may be taught to digest it by taking but little of it mixed with 
 carbonaceous food at breakfast. 
 
 It is always best, in order to strengthen the stomach, to take 
 articles of food that will tax the full power of digestion, just as it 
 is best to take active exercise in order to strengthen the muscles. 
 One who lives on rice can digest nothing else; but one who 
 can eat and digest beans, cheese, etc., can generally digest every- 
 thing. 
 
 Rice contains four-fifths carbonates and a very small propor- 
 tion of nitrates. Rice eaters the world over are lazy and feeble, with 
 inactive brains and sluggish bodies. Rice is very easily digested 
 and serves to keep the stomach active, where extreme weakness 
 prevents more nutritious foods being taken ; and is a very valuable 
 and safe food in such cases. 
 
 Beans contain carbonates, nitrates and phosphates in much 
 better proportion than any other food excepting milk, cheese, 
 meat and whole wheat. The advantage of beans over other foods 
 
106 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 is that they furnish a staying power for persons who have work to 
 do with either muscles or brain ; but as their muscle-making sub- 
 stance is in the form of casein, they can be digested only by strong 
 stomachs. They are deficient in carbonates and should be accom- 
 panied by white bread and buttter, or fat meat of some kind. A 
 pound of beans will do nearly as much muscular work as two 
 pounds of meat or whole wheat, and fully as much brain work. 
 Beans when eaten green have very little heat-producing power. 
 
 Peas are fully as valuable as beans and are digested by more 
 delicate stomachs. They are so rich in nutrition that they should 
 be accompanied by food which contains a great deal of waste, and 
 in this the potato seems to take the lead. Mashed potatoes mixed 
 with fresh cream or buttered well and generously sprinkled with 
 green peas furnish an ideal dish for warm weather, and provide all 
 elements necessary for life. 
 
 Potatoes are among the most valuable of foods, and are almost 
 indispensable where meat is eaten, as they furnish what is lacking 
 in meat, and sufficient waste matter to overcome the influence of 
 concentrated nutriment. They should be eaten with the entire 
 skin in order to get their full quantity of nourishment. Perfect 
 nutrition for the entire body can be found in a meal consisting of 
 milk, meat and whole potatoes ; or, better still, oatmeal or whole 
 wheat porridge, milk and whole potatoes. 
 
 Compare persons fed upon such wholesome food with those 
 who eat white bread and butter and the modern foods as they are 
 ordinarily prepared, and you will find on the one hand a race per- 
 fect in brain, nerves, muscle and organic health, while on the other 
 hand, you will see pallid faces, poor skin, dull eyes and evidences 
 of ill health suggesting aches and pains. 
 
 Oatmeal should never be eaten unless it is weakened by water 
 or cooked in milk. Oatmeal porridge in which there is much 
 more liquid than oatmeal is remarkable for producing great 
 mental and physical strength. One pint of oatmeal porridge con- 
 tains more muscle-producing material and brain food than ten 
 loaves of white bread of the ordinary five-cent size. Oatmeal 
 mush is not good as food, and has a poisonous eff'ect on some 
 stomachs. Owing to the strength of oats they should be diffused 
 among a large quantity of liquid. A people fed upon this porridge 
 made with milk, and upon potatoes with butter, would have perfect 
 health and strong mental and physical powers. 
 
THE USES OF FOOD. 107 
 
 Two per cent only of our nourishment may consist of phos- 
 phates in order to keep the brain and nerves in good health, unless 
 the brain is used for hard thinking. 
 
 The use of salt seems to be confined to exciting the saliva of 
 the mouth and gastric juice of the stomach. By so doing it renders 
 digestion easier ; and in cases of difficult digestion a spoonful of 
 salt water often gives relief if the stomach has not been too much 
 addicted to the use of salt in the past. It is also supposed that 
 salt excites glandular action throughout the entire body. 
 
 Buckwheat is an excessive heat-producer and causes eruptions 
 in the blood and ill-health, unless nitrates and phosphates are eaten 
 with it. It should be accompanied by beefsteak, cheese or milk. 
 
 Barley contains more brain-producing elements than any other 
 grain ; it contains more than twice as much as wheat, and is prob- 
 ably the finest food for men of sedentary habits, as it strengthens 
 the action of the brain and keeps the bowels pleasantly active. It 
 should always be eaten in the form of porridge cooked in milk and 
 water. 
 
 The gladiators were fed only on barley bread. The muscles 
 of beef and mutton contain the same elements as human muscles, 
 and are therefore adapted to nourish them, while unbolted wheat 
 and barley furnish also a due proportion of flesh-making materials; 
 and also in each of these articles are the phosphates, which give 
 vital force, wheat containing them in proportions necessary for 
 common exercise, and barley and the flesh of beef and mutton 
 more than double the proportion of those in wheat. 
 
 Fat and lean meat together furnish all of the fourteen ele- 
 ments necessary for health; but only the flesh of animals that 
 feed upon vegetables should ever be eaten by man. Fat meat 
 furnishes heat and lean meat muscle. While the brain food in 
 the fat of beef and of good veal is in very large proportion, pork, 
 on the other hand, is much more deficient in food for the brain. 
 
 Good veal contains more muscle than beef, but beef contains 
 more heat and brain food than veal, and is by far the best of the 
 meats ; then in their order come veal, mutton and lamb. 
 
 An important principle in determining the use of food is as fol- 
 lows : birds, fowl, fish and animal life generally will furnish the 
 best food for man from that part of the body which is most exer- 
 cised. It is a well known fact that beef contains more strength 
 than mutton or lamb; and that the least value in meat food comes 
 
108 THE RALSTOhl HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 from pork, which is produced by the laziest of animals. So there 
 are different values in meat taken from different parts of beef; the 
 tenderloin gives less strength than the sirloin, and the sirloin less 
 than the rump, and the rump less than the round. Following this 
 principle, the white meat of chicken and turkey which comes from 
 that part of the body which is but little exercised, contains no 
 more nutrition than common white bread ; while the dark meat 
 is rich in phosphates and muscle-making food. 
 
 Lobsters and crabs contain phosphates and nitrates in com- 
 pact form and are very hard to digest ; the best way to eat lobster 
 is to reduce it to a fine pulp and make a milk stew with plenty of 
 butter, and in this form we have a perfect food rich in all the 
 fourteen elements of the body. Of all the foolish ideas concerning 
 food, that which supposes oysters contain brain or muscle making 
 food is the most absurd. A man who ate nothing but oysters 
 would soon lose both muscle and brain power. 
 
 Milk of the cow contains all the elements of the human 
 system, in the right proportions ; and, if concentrated, or if the 
 stomach were large enough to contain these elements in their 
 diluted state, in sufficient quantities, would support the life and 
 health of any man indefinitely. 
 
 Table of Foods. — On the next two pages is given a table of 
 food- values, stated not so much for the exactness of their chemical 
 parts, as for their proportions which are available to man. Some 
 foods are chemically rich, yet indigestible. 
 
 Ralston Model Meals. 
 
 For several years we received thousands of requests to pre- 
 pare a work giving the meals which should be eaten for health, 
 as well by the sick as by the strong. We at last yielded to these 
 demands, and the book called Ralston Meals passed through three 
 editions in seven months* The latest and finally perfect edition 
 is described as follows : 
 
 "The Wonder of Wonderful Books." 
 RALSTON MODEL MEALS 
 
 For every day in the year ; and how to prepare them. 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Fifty-five Chapters. 
 It arranges your meals for you; it almost sets them before you. It suits them to all 
 conditions, days, weathers, climates, and individuals, according to the GREAT RALSTON 
 DOCTRINES OF HEALTH. 
 
 "Model Meals" is the greatest blessing to those who eat, and to those who must 
 decide what to eat, and what to get to eat. 
 
 Price, Fifty Cents. 
 You may send stamps, or money order, express order, etc. Address, 
 
 RALSTON HEALTH CLUB, 
 Box 291. Washington. D. C. 
 
TABLE OF FOODS 
 
 los 
 
 ARTICLES. 
 
 1 
 
 . 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 (A 
 
 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 Asparagus .... 
 
 5.4 
 
 0.6 
 
 0.4 
 
 93.6 
 
 
 Bacon . . 
 
 
 
 62.5 
 
 8.4 
 
 0.5 
 
 28.6 
 
 . . . 
 
 Barley . . 
 
 
 
 52.1 
 
 12.8 
 
 4.2 
 
 14.0 
 
 16.9 
 
 Beans . . . 
 
 
 
 40.0 
 
 24.0 
 
 3.5 
 
 14.8 
 
 17,7 
 
 Beef . . . 
 
 
 
 14.0 
 
 19.0 
 
 2.0 
 
 65.0 
 
 . . . 
 
 Buckwheat 
 
 
 
 53.0 
 
 8.6 
 
 1.8 
 
 14.2 
 
 22.4 
 
 Butter . . 
 
 
 
 100.0 . 
 6.2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cabbage . . 
 
 1.2 
 
 0.8 
 
 91.3 
 
 0.5 
 
 Carrots . . 
 
 
 
 12.2 
 
 1.1 
 
 1.0 
 
 82.5 
 
 3.2 
 
 Cauliflower 
 
 
 
 4.6 
 
 3.6 
 
 1.0 
 
 90.0 
 
 0.8 
 
 Cheese . . 
 
 
 
 28.0 
 
 30.8 
 
 4.7 
 
 36.5 
 
 . . . 
 
 Cherries . . 
 
 
 
 21.0 
 
 0.6 
 
 1.0 
 
 76.3 
 
 1.1 
 
 Chicken . . 
 
 
 
 1.9 
 
 21.6 
 
 2.8 
 
 73.7 
 
 . . . 
 
 Chocolate . 
 
 
 
 88.0 
 
 8.8 
 
 1.8 
 
 . . . 
 
 1.4 
 
 Clam . . . 
 
 
 
 very little 
 
 12.0 
 
 2.5 
 
 . . . 
 
 . . . 
 
 Codfish . . 
 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 16.5 
 
 2.5 
 
 80.0 
 
 ... 
 
 Corn, northern . 
 
 
 67.5 
 
 12.3 
 
 1.1 
 
 14.0 
 
 5.1 
 
 Corn, southern 
 
 
 39.2 
 
 34.6 
 
 4.1 
 
 14.0 
 
 8.1 
 
 Cream . . . 
 
 
 4.5 
 
 3.5 
 
 . 
 
 92.0 
 
 . . . 
 
 Cucumber . 
 
 
 
 1.7 
 
 0.1 
 
 0.5 
 
 97.1 
 
 0.6 
 
 Currants . 
 
 
 
 6.8 
 
 0.9 
 
 0.3 
 
 81.3 
 
 10.7 
 
 Dates, fresh 
 
 
 
 73.7 
 
 . . . 
 
 . . . 
 
 24.0 
 
 2.3 
 
 Eels . . . 
 
 
 
 some fat 
 
 17.0 
 
 3.5 
 
 75.0 
 
 • • ■ 
 
 Eggs, white of 
 
 
 . . . . 
 
 13.0 
 
 2.8 
 
 84.2 
 
 ... 
 
 Eggs, yolk of 
 
 
 29.8 
 
 16.9 
 
 2.0 
 
 61.3 
 
 . . 
 
 Figs .... 
 
 
 57.9 
 
 5.0 
 
 3.4 
 
 18.7 
 
 15.0 
 
 Flounder . 
 
 
 
 some fat 
 
 15.0 
 
 3.5 
 
 78.0 
 
 
 Green Gages 
 
 
 
 26.8 
 
 0.3 
 
 . . . 
 
 71.1 
 
 1.8 
 
 Haddock . 
 
 
 
 0.6 
 
 14.0 
 
 2.6 
 
 82.8 
 
 . 
 
 HaUbut . . 
 
 
 
 some fat 
 
 18.0 
 
 3.5 
 
 74.0 
 
 • . « 
 
 Ham . . . 
 
 
 
 32.0 
 
 35.0 
 
 4.4 
 
 28.6 
 
 . . . 
 
 Herring . . 
 
 
 
 some fat 
 
 18.0 
 
 4.5 
 
 75.0 
 
 • « • 
 
 Horseradish 
 
 
 
 4.7 
 
 0.1 
 
 1.0 
 
 78.2 
 
 16.0 
 
 Kidney . . 
 
 
 
 0.9 
 
 21.2 
 
 1.4 
 
 76.5 
 
 . 
 
 Lamb . . . 
 
 
 
 14.3 
 
 19.6 
 
 2.2 
 
 63.9 
 
 . 
 
 Lard . . . 
 
 
 
 100.0 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
110 
 
 TABLE OF FOODS— Continued. 
 
 ARTICLES. 
 
 Lentils . . . 
 Liver .... 
 Lobster . . . 
 Milk of Cow . 
 Milk, human 
 Mutton . . . 
 Oats .... 
 Onions . . . 
 Oysters . . . 
 Parsnips . . 
 Pearl Barley . 
 Pears .... 
 Peas .... 
 Pigeon . . . 
 Plaice .... 
 Pork .... 
 Potatoes . . . 
 Prunes . . . 
 Radishes . . 
 Rice .... 
 Rye .... 
 Salmon . . . 
 Smelt .... 
 Sole .... 
 Suet .... 
 Sweet Potatoes 
 Trout .... 
 Turbot . . . 
 Turnips . . . 
 Veal .... 
 Venison . . . 
 Vermicelli . . 
 Wheat . . . 
 Whey .... 
 Whiting . . . 
 
 39.0 
 
 3.9 
 very little 
 
 8.0 
 
 7.0 
 14.0 
 50.8 
 
 5.2 
 
 14.5 
 
 78.0 
 
 9.6 
 
 41.0 
 
 1.9 
 
 very little 
 
 16.0 
 
 15.8 
 
 78.6 
 
 7.4 
 
 82.0 
 
 75.2 
 
 some fat 
 
 very little 
 
 0.8 
 
 100.0 
 
 21.8 
 
 0.8 
 
 very little 
 
 4.0 
 
 14.3 
 
 8.0 
 
 38.0 
 
 66.4 
 
 4.6 
 
 very little 
 
 26.0 
 
 26.3 
 
 14.0 
 
 5.0 
 
 3.0 
 
 21.0 
 
 17.0 
 
 0.5 
 
 12.6 
 
 2.1 
 
 4.7 
 
 0.1 
 
 23.4 
 
 23.0 
 
 14.0 
 
 17.5 
 
 1.4 
 
 3.9 
 
 1.2 
 
 5.1 
 
 6.5 
 
 20.0 
 
 17.0 
 
 17.0 
 
 1.5 
 16.9 
 17.0 
 
 1.2 
 17.7 
 20.4 
 47.5 
 14.6 
 
 15.0 
 
 1.5 
 1.2 
 5.5 
 1.0 
 0.5 
 2.0 
 3.0 
 0.5 
 0.2 
 1.0 
 0.2 
 
 2.5 
 2.7 
 5.5 
 2.2 
 0.9 
 4.5 
 1.0 
 0.5 
 0.5 
 6.5 
 5.5 
 2.5 
 
 2.9 
 4.3 
 5.5 
 0.5 
 2.3 
 2.8 
 1.7 
 1.6 
 0.7 
 5.5 
 
 14.0 
 68.6 
 79.0 
 86.0 
 89.5 
 63.0 
 13.6 
 93.8 
 87.2 
 79.4 
 
 9.5 
 86.4 
 14.1 
 72.4 
 80.0 
 64.3 
 74.8 
 13.0 
 89.1 
 
 9.0 
 13.5 
 74.0 
 75.0 
 79.7 
 
 67.5 
 78.0 
 79.0 
 90.4 
 65.7 
 68.8 
 12.8 
 14.0 
 94.7 
 78.0 
 
 19.5 
 
 15.6 
 
 3.0 
 
 7.6 
 
 3.9 
 
 19.0 
 
 7.1 
 
 1.3 
 
 3.4 
 4.3 
 
 6.3 
 3.9 
 
 3.4 
 
m 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 EATING FOR HEALTH. 
 
 l^TNDER the storm and the cloud today, 
 '*»^ And today the hard peril and pain — 
 Tomorrow the stone shall be rolled away, 
 For the sunshine shall follow the rain, 
 
 Joaquin Miller. 
 
 The study oii tchat to eat is man's strongest castle ol health.*'— S/ta/Zes&trr;f. 
 
 HIS chapter is not scientific in its language nor in the pre- 
 sentation of its facts, although all the statements herein 
 are scientifically correct. To burden a book of this 
 kind with language that could be understood only by 
 those who are familiar with technical terms would defeat 
 its usefulness. 
 
 When we say that all the Ralston Health Club books are used 
 by physicians, not only for study, but for reference, and that the 
 same books are made so plain and so easily understood that the 
 most illiterate person can learn the great facts of life and health 
 therefrom, we are able to realize the importance of the Club in aid- 
 ing mankind to avoid disease. 
 
 The principal meal of the day should commence with soup, 
 as this excites the stomach to healthy activity, and prepares it to 
 receive more solid food. 
 
 A person in Class One may eat almost anything that is 
 relished, if the taste be not previously perverted. 
 
 A person of average weight who exercises sufficiently to main- 
 tain good health, requires five ounces of nitrates for the muscles, 
 twenty ounces of carbonates for heat, two or two and a half per 
 cent of phosphates for the brain, nerves and bones, with waste to 
 accompany it for bulk, which may consist in part of water and 
 natural acids to enable the liver to eliminate the efiete matter from 
 the blood. 
 
 As we have said in the previous chapter the great danger is in 
 eating too much carbonaceous food, which overheats and inflames 
 the blood, and is a fruitful cause of disease. But on the other 
 hand it is asked, is there not too great a danger in eating food 
 
U2 THE RALSTON HE/tLTH CLUB. 
 
 which contains an excess of nitrates and phosphates ? And we 
 will say that the latter is not sufficiently abundant to overstock 
 the system, while one of the chief dangers of eating an undue 
 proportion of nitrates is their liability to contract the stomach 
 and injure digestion. A person living on nothing but cheese 
 would possess a stomach about one-seventh of its natural size 
 which, therefore, would not secrete the gastric juice which is 
 necessary for digestion ; and it is well known that the distention 
 of the stomach is necessary in order to secrete these juices. The 
 foods which are over-rich in nitrates are cheese. Southern corn, 
 beans, peas, fish, lean meat^, fruits and vegetables. These are great 
 muscle-makers but must be avoided in combinations unless 
 accompanied by a due proportion of carbonaceous food and 
 waste. For the convenience of our members we give the follow- 
 ing classifications : 
 
 The best of the common phosphatic or brain foods are lean 
 meat, fish, cheese, whole wheat, oatmeal, almond nuts. Southern 
 corn, beans, peas, potatoes, figs and prunes. 
 
 The best of the common carbonaceous or heat-producing 
 foods are fat, sugar, butter, rice, rye, chocolate, dates, buckwheat 
 and Northern corn and white bread. The eating of too much of 
 this class of food is the cause of ill health, poor blood and bad skin. 
 
 The best of the common nitrogenous or muscle-producing 
 foods are vermicelli, cheese, meats, Southern corn, salmon, lentils, 
 beans and peas. The first two, vermicelli and cheese, are among 
 the best muscle-producers known, for uses in modern life. 
 
 The necessity of phosphorus for persons of strong mentality, 
 or for those who study much, or whose habits are sedentary, may 
 be clearly demonstrated in the fact that when the brain has been 
 very active, or a person has been worrying, the excretions from 
 the body contain a larger proportion of phosphorus than at any 
 other time. Clergymen on Monday, lawyers during a court trial, 
 and physicians when overworked, by actual proof lose unusual 
 quantities of phosphorus. This shows the necessity of knowing 
 what to eat, and in what proportions to eat the different elements. 
 
 School girls grow pale and their parents ascribe the cause to 
 something else, when it is due solely to the loss of phosphorus and 
 the lack of foods which contain that element. Some physicians, 
 knowing the real cause, prescribe phosphates in medicines from 
 deorganized phosphates, as all medicines are. This is mockery at 
 
EATING FOR HEALTH. 113 
 
 Nature and Nature's God, who has furnished these organized phos- 
 phates in fish, grain and meat, ready for digestion and assimilation 
 in the human system. 
 
 Ralston Bran Lemonade. — The most nourishing drink for 
 the brain and nervous system, as well as for the general vitality, is 
 bran water. It is not likely to become popular, as it costs little or 
 nothing ; but let any person whose brain is tired or is overworked 
 or wearied from any employment that saps the vitality take a glass 
 of bran water, either with or without the lemonade, and the result 
 will be surprising. Owing to the great predominance of phos- 
 phorus in bran, the nervous system as well as vitality of body, and 
 brain are quickly nourished, and the eyes become bright and all 
 weariness departs. You should get some small flouring mill to 
 save you the bran ; or it can be purchased of any grain dealer. 
 One pint of bran in two quarts of water should be |;>oiled five 
 minutes, then strained through cheese cloth, and allowed to stand 
 an hour or two in order to settle. Add ice ; and, if you prefer, 
 add lemons and sugar. Persons who are easily fatigued during the 
 day should drink bran water occasionally. Shop girls, clerks, peo- 
 ple of sedentary habits and care-worn mothers will become new 
 beings under the influence of phosphorus taken in this way ; while 
 on the other hand any phosphates taken in medicinal drinks or 
 liquid form sold as medicine will be found to be disorganized and 
 therefore injurious to the health. 
 
 The digestive organs require that kind of food which creates 
 energy and strength of action. We have known many persons 
 having weak stomachs hardly capable of digesting anything 
 stronger than rice, who have gradually acquired power by care- 
 fully training the stomach, and attending to the four cardinal 
 points of health, to digest the most difl&cult food. 
 
 Food which contains the most nourishment is usually the 
 least wholesome when taken alone. Waste matter is necessary 
 every day in order to distend the stomach and intestines, and to 
 produce an excitement of good digestion and a stimulant to the 
 bowels to throw ofi" their excretions. 
 
 The use of condiments, such as mustard, cloves, horse-radish, 
 sauces, and pungent spices, has been proved to be injurious to the 
 stomach, liver and especially to the heart; yet they are of no harm 
 to a strong stomach if taken in very small quantities. 
 
 Meat ought not to be eaten by very young persons, as it often 
 
114 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 causes nervous derangements, fits, and certain indiscretions in 
 youth. The healthiest and purest lives come from those who do 
 not eat meat before the age of fifteen. 
 
 Potatoes sliced thin and fried are indigestible; and, while 
 delicious to the taste, they not only afford no real nourishment, 
 but injure the processes of digestion as to other food. They also 
 cause a disarrangement of the liver. 
 
 Cake clogs the stomach. All rich pastry is poison to the liver. 
 Glucose, a perverted form of corn, is prevalent in beer and in other 
 drinks, and especially in soft caramels and creams, and in syrups, 
 jellies, and similar things. Although derived from a nutritious 
 food, it is in a perverted shape, and to GLUCOSE may be attrib- 
 uted the rapid spread of BRIGHT'S DISEASE. 
 
 Trichinae and tape worm cysts come from pork, raw meat and 
 sausages. .Bologna sausage, meat-cheese, and any cooked sausages 
 which contain red meat should be avoided. 
 
 The aged need attention as to their food. Grandfather is 
 getting old ; the jolly good-natured face is not as bright as it used 
 to be, though the old gentleman seems to be putting on more flesh, 
 while his daily food consists mostly of buckwheat cakes and syrup, 
 white bread and butter, sugar, rice and fat meats. His strength of 
 mind and body have gone, and he drones about the house in a 
 continual stupor. He needs a change of food ; lean meat and 
 fish, cracked wheat and potatoes, barley cakes, rye bread, or 
 Southern corn cakes. Give him these and his mental vigor will 
 come back again. Instead of sitting indoors all day he will be 
 more active. 
 
 Maybe he is quite thin and lean, with pale blue flesh. He 
 needs buckwheat cakes, molasses, fat meats, potatoes mashed in 
 milk and well buttered, together with Northern corn, cracked wheat 
 and fish, oatmeal porridge, and fruits every morning. Are grand- 
 father and grandmother both living ; and would you desire to have 
 them with you for a great many years yet, hale and hearty, good- 
 natured and vigorous, actively useful both to themselves and to 
 those about them ? You can make them happy, and make their 
 lives such as we have described, by giving them proper food. 
 
 Give us a hearty, ruddy-cheeked person, full of health, and to 
 whom neuralgia and rheumatism are entirely unknown, and let 
 the average mother, or head of the kitchen, arrange the breakfasts 
 for several weeks, consisting in chief of buckwheats and syrup, or 
 
EATING FOR HEALTH. 116 
 
 white flour cakes, butter biscuits, white bread, bacon, cofiee, and 
 the like — all heaters and all without brain or nerve foods — and the 
 cheeks will grow pale and the health fade. Headaches, dull, stupid 
 days ; tired feelings and a disposition to lounge about and do noth- 
 ing will surely follow, ending at last in neuralgia, and sometimes 
 in rheumatism. 
 
 While not attempting at the present time to classify our 
 members, for we could not do so without knowing more of their 
 temperaments and conditions, we will lay down the following 
 general rules. Do not fall into the error of supposing that these 
 rules are all there are, or that the food described should be imper- 
 atively used. 
 
 First General Rule. Milk. — This is undoubtedly the sim- 
 plest and most closely allied to nature of all means of sustaining 
 the body. As soon as it is taken from the cow it should be 
 instantly poured into glass jars that have been previously scalded, 
 then sealed air-tight. This prevents the milk from absorbing the 
 poisons which exist in every atmosphere. The scalding will 
 kill the germs that may already be in the jar, otherwise disinte- 
 gration would commence in the milk before being taken into the 
 Btomach. 
 
 Many persons claim that they are unable to drink milk. This 
 indicates simply a diseased condition of the stomach, and needs to 
 be remedied by our special treatment. An excellent way of drink- 
 ing milk is to put lumps of ice in a glass, and over this pour 
 enough milk to fill in between the pieces of ice and instantly drink 
 the whole of it. The cream, of course, should be left upon the 
 milk unless the patient is troubled with diseases of the kidneys, in 
 which case no cream should be allowed to enter the stomach until 
 the disease has been cured. 
 
 Second General Rule. Cheese. — This excellent article of 
 food may be used as a complete substitute for milk, and requires 
 the following things to be observed in its production and keeping : 
 It should be made from pure milk and cream, taking the milk in - 
 the natural state ; it should be mild, always fresh, and should be 
 kept in as pure an atmosphere as possible. We confidently expect 
 that in each town and city there will be a club who will elect an 
 executive committee, to serve for a limited time, whose duty shall 
 be to look personally after these matters for the benefit of the 
 entire club. 
 
116 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Third General Rule. Eggs. — Eggs and milk alone have 
 been known to sustain life for many years. It costs no more to 
 get fresh, pure eggs than to get the kind ordinarily found in the 
 markets. It may take a little more trouble, but the executive 
 committee of your club will look after this for you, and as all of 
 you in turn act on that committee, you will find the social pleas- 
 ures to more than pay you for your trouble. Eggs obtain a bad 
 odor or flavor from the impure food of which the hens are sure to 
 get too much if they are not fed by the owners. For the purpose 
 of obtaining the best eggs for the health, the hens should be fed 
 upon good, wholesome food and pure water in the morning, and 
 again at night, and then be allowed to pick up what they may 
 during the day. Of course, the better way of preparing the eggs 
 is to mix them with milk and cook them as lightly as possible. 
 
 Fourth General Rule. Apples. — This excellent fruit should 
 always be kept where it can be partaken of at 'any hour of the 
 day, and an appetite for it should be cultivated. There are but 
 few brands of apples which suit the taste of an individual. These 
 should be ascertained and secured ; the only requisite being that 
 the apple should be fully ripe. As it is a good plan never to allow 
 the stomach to be empty more than an hour at a time, and as the 
 disease germs in the air are never absorbed by the stomach when 
 it contains food, no better kind of light food could be taken 
 than apples, crackers and cheese once every hour or so during the 
 day. 
 
 Fifth General Rule. Fruit — Oranges which are very sweet 
 are generally poisonous. So also, are oranges w^hose skin emits a 
 stinging oil. This may be tested by placing the skin to the lips 
 and bending it backwards so as to slightly bruise it. The thin- 
 skinned, sour, or middling sweet oranges are the best. Splendid 
 health results from taking only the juice (not the pulp) of six 
 Florida or California oranges daily. Try this for one year, and 
 see what bright eyes, clear brains and excellent health you will 
 have. Bananas eaten in America are positively injurious under 
 all circumstances, no matter how they are raised or how they are 
 ripened. In their native country they are excellent as food. In 
 this country they are nearly equal to poison, and commence dis- 
 integration of the body the moment they enter the stomach. No 
 decayed fruit under any circumstances should ever be touched, 
 even if the decay could be cut out, for the smallest speck of decay 
 
EyITING FOR HEALTH. U7 
 
 permeates the entire fruit. Lemons are valuable, especially if 
 taken without the aid of sugar. Raisins, if large and not decayed, 
 and if they contain no worms, are a more powerful stimulant to 
 the body than wine, and exhilarate the nervous system without 
 any fear of intoxication. But as nearly all brands of raisins con- 
 tain worms which are not visible to the naked eye, it would be 
 well for the club in your town to borrow a microscope and investi- 
 gate the condition of the raisins they use. Grapes are generally 
 very good; some are not safe to take; for instance, the little 
 Catawbas will poison a person. The Concords are the most com- 
 mon, easiest raised, and always perfectly safe, if the little fine 
 dust of a bluish tint is on them. Never eat a grape where this is 
 absent, for it indicates that the fruit may have been raised either 
 in the shade or some unhealthy spot, or that they are stale. 
 Grapes should always be on the bunch, and not split or open, for 
 they quickly absorb the poisonous life in the atmosphere. The 
 better way to eat them is to go out in the early morning and take 
 them directly from the vines, or else eat them at home when they 
 are not warm. Peaches, if not tart, are very good, but the large, 
 course, yellow-fleshed peaches are too harsh. All pears are 
 exceedingly beneficial if not decayed, or specked with decay. 
 The well-known Bartlett pear is one of the most valuable aids to 
 a good action of the kidneys. When eaten to excess, so that the 
 body is crowded with them, they become very cleansing. Water- 
 melons thrive best in malarial countries, and even in non-malarial 
 countries absorb the low poisons that lurk near the ground. Not 
 only is this the case, but watermelons also seriously injure the 
 action of the liver, although most persons who have eaten heavily 
 of this fruit and suffer ascribe the cause to something else. Toma- 
 toes should be eaten sparingly, and generally avoided in soups or 
 cans. 
 
 Sixth General Rule. Nuts. — All nuts, excepting the almond, 
 contain an oil that acts as a poison upon the organs, some aflecting 
 the heart, some the liver and some the kidneys. The almond is 
 very nutritious and fattening. It is probable that no injury could 
 arise from eating them. Nuts, however, are so rich in phosphorus 
 that a few should be eaten after each dinner and almonds are 
 specially recommended. 
 
 Seventh General Rule. Vegetables. — Every kind of vege- 
 table 'has its value, and is more to be preferred than meat. We 
 
U8 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 must remember that the strong horse, and ox and mule, all of 
 which perform such wonderful feats of strength, get their great 
 power from the common grains, and vegetables and grasses. Who 
 ever heard of an ox, or a horse, or a mule eating meat? Persons 
 who live mostly upon vegetables have the best health, the best 
 nerves and the best complexion. 
 
 Eighth General Rule. Red Pepper. — The value of red 
 pepper upon the liver cannot be fully understood until one has 
 used it. We have never seen a case of malaria, or of intermittent 
 fever, or of congestive chills, which could not be completely 
 destroyed by this simple method. It is a well known fact that 
 red pepper in very small doses given to hens, will prevent nearly 
 all kinds of disease among them. The club of which you are a 
 member should see that pure red pepper, ground into powder 
 known as Cayenne pepper, is obtainable in your locality. 
 
 Ill health is caused by improper food and by an improper 
 disposal of it after reaching the stomach ; or by food which is in 
 a bad condition when eaten. Pure digestion is not a species of 
 decay, but on the other hand, it is dissolution without decay. 
 The latter occurs by the natural law of death, and as little oppor- 
 tunity as possible should be given it to take place in the body. 
 The whole secret of a long life seems to lie at the door of this 
 fact, coupled with the generation of the Life Principle to sustain 
 it. Hence, it may be seen that food should not be put into the 
 stomach in a condition of decay or adulteration, so as to clog the 
 system and hold the process of disintegration there. 
 
 THINK AS YOU EAT. 
 
 In closing this important chapter it is well to ask our mem- 
 bers to think when they eat of what they are eating. By this time 
 the nature of the food which you eat will be well known to you, 
 and its uses understood. 
 
 What did you eat to-day ? 
 
 Was it too much carbonaceous ? Or nitrogenous ? Or phos- 
 phatic ? The first undoubtedly. 
 
 Now we will say that you have changed your diet and have 
 been eating plenty of nitrates and phosphates. Still something is 
 the matter: the food is too condensed. You need waste matter, 
 and you are apt to regard carbonaceous food as waste ; so be care- 
 ful. Look at the " Table of Foods" and act accordingly. 
 
119 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 (HEALTH DI^^8ION.) 
 
 PLAIN FACTS 
 
 ®0 Truth's house there is a single door, 
 WTiich is Experience. He teaches best, 
 Who feels the hearts of all men in his breast, 
 And knows their strength or weakness through liis own. 
 
 Bayard Taylor. 
 
 A fact proced by fair experience, is greater than a thousand theories ijet 
 untested." — Shaftesbury. 
 
 ERHAPS this chapter is the most important one in the 
 present volume. It presents a series of plain facts, 
 many of which are recognized at a glance, and most of 
 which are overlooked in daily life. We state nothing 
 that we have not learned the truth of through the pro- 
 cess of some experiment. The Ralston Club owes it 
 as a duty to its members to correct many of the erroneous impres- 
 sions that are afloat concerning the use of foods and drinks ; and 
 to do this we publish the following facts : 
 
 Tea. — When you die, you will either wear out by ossification, 
 or be eaten up by bacteria, or lose your nervous vitality and so 
 perish by heart failure or paralysis. If you will name any imme- 
 diate cause of death (barring accident or violence) we wUl trace it 
 quickly and directly to one of these three original causes. An 
 unbalanced person is nervous ; nervousness is an erratic action of 
 the vitality, caused by improper food or lack of exercise ; tea wUl 
 calm the nerves and produce quietude by causing temporary 
 paralysis ; hence it affects life and leads to one of the causes of 
 death. Its earliest paralyzing effect is found upon the bladder and 
 connecting organs. Children and old people who drink tea are 
 peculiarly weak in these organs. If tea must be taken it is safest 
 on a full stomach. On an empty stomach it is very injurious. 
 
 Coffee. — This drink has its good and bad effects upon the 
 system. To use plain language, we will call it a tanner or tough- 
 ener of the tissues ; that is, it prevents the breaking down of old 
 tissues as fast as would happen ordinarily. For this reason coffee, 
 if taken in the morning with a large meal, by one who is to work 
 out of doors all day, will prove a valuable staying power. To a 
 
120 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 poor man or laborer it acts as a reserve force, by giving him a 
 longer use of his tissues. To one who is to remain indoors, or 
 who eats but little food, it is a precursor of soil-disease^ or the 
 accumulation of dead animal matter in the body. This occurs 
 because the toughened tissues, when loosened as they must be or 
 death will ensue, are not readily thrown ofif. They make soil-heaps 
 all through the body. See soil-disease^ in this chapter. Another 
 objection to coffee is its disorganization. See the next fact. 
 
 Effect of tea and coffee upon digestion. A German 
 physiologist, Schultz-Schultzenstein, subjected chopped boiled 
 eggs to artificial digestion with hydrochloric acid, adding in 
 different cases pure water, tea and coffee. The percentage of 
 albumen digested by the pure acid was 94, with the water 92, 
 with the tea 66, and with the coffee 61. Thus the addition of 
 pure water affected the digestion little, but the tea and coffee 
 lessened it materially. In this experiment the egg was chopped 
 into millimetre cubes. In a previous trial, in which the egg was 
 not chopped so fine, the presence of tea and coffee was even more 
 unfavorable. 
 
 Organized food. — As we have once before stated, no food 
 should be taken into the stomach unless it has been organized in 
 some vegetable. Meat of an animal that has eaten no meat is of 
 vegetable origin ; but meat of an animal that has eaten meat is 
 partly deorganized. So vegetables are often deorganized by decay 
 or burning. A raw peanut, if boiled, or a chestnut, if boiled, may 
 be nutritious ; and would be if cooked in any way that did not 
 destroy its cells; but browning it is destructive of its food value. 
 The same is true of browned flour, of browned grains, if the heat 
 permeates them as in coffee. The latter is deorganized, and is 
 therefore no longer a natural food. Of course, the browning of 
 the outside of food, as in toasting or roasting, only deorganizes 
 the outside. A potato browned clear through would cause stomach 
 trouble. 
 
 Soil disease. — This is an accumulation of dead animal mat- 
 ter in the body or any part. It may be caused by one of three 
 things : gross eating, lack of exercise, or interjferenee with the tis- 
 sues. When gross eating is the cause, and when the tissues have 
 been toughened by coffee, tea or alcohol, the liver, the kidneys or 
 the heart may be chiefly affected. As the tissues give us our life 
 only by their own death, it is not well to toughen them so that 
 
PLAIN FACTS. 
 
 121 
 
 they will remain in the system after their destruction; yet tea, 
 coffee and alcohol aU do this. The dead carcasses of miUions 
 times millions of these tissues are piled up in the body ; and they 
 naturally seek to affiliate with some organ. The liver is the softest, 
 and the most easily preyed upon. Out of every one hundred 
 persons, ninety-nine have some enlargement or other disease of 
 
 Enlaigement of the liver. Due to gross eating ; or the oofSee, tea or 
 alcohol habits. 
 
 of the liver. In Figure 21 a displacement of the heart is shown as 
 taken from an actual case, and common to many. 
 
 Detection of soil-disease. — We have made, in the last 
 twenty-three years, many experiments in tracing the cause of soU- 
 disease. There are three absolutely sure signs. The first is in the 
 breath. Out of two thousand cases of strong cofiee drinkers, every 
 person without a single exception had a soil-disease breath. The 
 dead animal matter could be detected by the odor of the breath ; 
 which is clearly distinguishable from that of decayed teeth. The 
 second is the souring of milk on the stomach. The third is the 
 morning appetite. 
 
 Sour stomach. — Nothing can sour in or out of the body 
 unless bacteria are present. This is an absolutely ascertained fact 
 When bacteria get into the body they cannot live, or get a foot- 
 
122 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 hold even, unless there is soil for them. Like other germs of their 
 kingdom they thrive upon animal refuse ; live and multiply ] and 
 then attack everything they can reach. In order to have sour 
 stomach, belchings or eructations, two things are necessary : soil 
 and germ-life. Without both, fermentation is impossible. 
 
 Milk. — Milk is the natural food, and the first food, of life. 
 It is adapted to the human stomach, although cow's milk is 
 slightly too strong for the infant. A healthy stomach will absorb 
 milk as easily as a sponge will take water. The more milk one 
 gets into the system, the less organic trouble there will be. The 
 body needs it, and must have it. The cow, and all animals, male 
 and female, as well as the human being, create milk out of the food 
 eaten. This goes on daily. Even if you eat meat only, in an 
 hour a stream of milk will be flowing toward the blood of the 
 heart. Milk is the last condition of digestion, and the nearest to 
 blood. Why not then use it and save the system so much labor? 
 The experiment was tried on some persons a few years ago, of 
 giving them mush with sugar and milk every morning for a 
 month ; then mush and sugar without the milk for a month. In 
 the first month the health became better ; in the last, when milk 
 was omitted, sickness or debility followed in most every case. If 
 your stomach cannot retain milk without its souring, you have 
 soil-disease, and your breath will show it. 
 
 Morning appetite. — A person who does not have a natural 
 craving for food on arising in the morning, has soil-disease; and the 
 breath will be loaded with the odor of it. In a healthy person the 
 appetite is keen. In the morning as soon as you are on your feet, 
 the mouth should be free from taste, and the stomach should evince 
 a strong hunger. Nature requires that the first meal should be the 
 strongest. The body is in fact a furnace, whose fires are to burn 
 all day. The habit of denying it fuel in the morning and giving 
 it an overload at the end of the day when the fires are not required 
 further, is in accord with the average way of dealing with this 
 unfortunate human body. 
 
 Vegetarianism. — Let us look at this much vexed question. 
 We eat to get blood. The blood requires nothing but blood. Milk 
 is the step just before blood is made. Whatever you eat must 
 turn to milk, before it makes blood. You have a very large milk 
 duct in your body. If you drink pure fresh blood, as many physi- 
 cians advise, it is absorbed into your own blood at once ; so would 
 
Fig. •>2. 
 The tissues of meat, containing only fibrine. 
 
 PL^IIN FACTS. 123 
 
 raw meat, if it had no fibrine ; so would the broth of meat, the 
 extract, or the soup. If you are after muscular strength, you can- 
 not get it out of soup, or broth ; for the fibrine is the muscle- 
 builder. It is itself in a 
 state of soil-disease^ as it is 
 composed of the tissues 
 which make the disease. 
 For excessive strength 
 barley stands at the head of 
 all foods, whether meat or 
 grains ; next come the pre- 
 ferred grains such as South- 
 ern corn, hominy, whole 
 wheat, oat-porridge, all fifty times bettter muscle makers than 
 meat fibrine. For brain and nerve nourishers, we are compeDed 
 to admit that beef extract, free from the fibers of meat, is by far 
 the best ; but beans are second, then the preferred grains. 
 
 Meat. — Shall we discard meat, and become vegetarians? 
 No ; not, at least, until we know what we are doing. Meat, being 
 flesh, is a sure food. If you discard it for a diet that will not 
 take its place, sickness wiU follow. If you were to live on vege- 
 tables, your blood would turn to chills. If you took to grains, 
 not knowing their value as food, you would have neuralgia and 
 headaches. Meat is best supplanted by whole wheat, barley, corn, 
 cheese and eggs ; if any one of these is aided by potatoes, fruits, 
 vegetables, milk and the lighter grains. The fact that meat is 
 injurious should not drive us to a greater danger. 
 
 Influences of meat. — We do not think human muscles 
 should be built of meat fibers ; but, if meat can be cooked so as 
 to extract aU the elements of the fibers, except their almost white 
 substance, the elements so removed become a perfect food, except 
 for muscle-making. Potatoes alone may supply the latter; but 
 many grains, and even leaves and grasses, will do it. See what 
 enormous muscles the horse and ox get from grass ! Our reasons 
 why meat fibers should not be used to build human muscles are 
 as follows : first, they are not necessary, as grains and vegetables 
 can build better muscles; second, meat fibers are dangerous to 
 the stomach, having caused death in many cases of convalescing 
 patients ; third, meat fibers are hard to digest, even a day's boiling 
 will merely scatter them, not dissolve them ; fourth, meat fibers 
 
124 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 hold to the last a lot of old age insoluble salts, and calcareous 
 matter ; fifth, the salts are insoluble phosphates, are not good for 
 man, and, when freed, produce an erratic nerve action. This 
 causes convulsions in children. Meat juice can do no harm to the 
 young, if it is cooked; but meat fibers have caused convulsions in 
 even kittens and pups, animals designed by nature to eat meat. 
 The faults of young men, the morbid cravings of appetite and 
 passions, and the brutal animalism of humanity are, without the 
 slightest doubt, due to fibers in meat or to uncooked blood in 
 flesh. To sum up, we recommend : that meat be well cooked ; 
 that all but the fibers be eaten ; and that muscles be built from 
 potatoes and the preferred grains. 
 
 Fats. — Most certainly the body needs fats; but, in milk, it is 
 ready for the blood. Yet fats come directly from vegetation ; the 
 richest butter is made from June grasses, or winter feeding of grain. 
 Fat meats are nearly free from the insoluble-fibres, and are pro- 
 ductive of almost no injury. 
 
 What about Pork? — There are two principles involved: 
 first, flesh is the direct result of the food eaten ; second, flesh bears 
 the nature of the animal from which it comes. Lamb is a clean 
 meat and produces clean human blood ; beef makes far more vig- 
 orous blood ; pork makes dirty blood, dirty skin, dirty natures. 
 Our disposition comes from the food we eat. The king of small 
 birds* is able to whip the larger ones, simply because his temper 
 comes from the hornets on which he feeds. An animal fed on 
 grains is less savage than if he were fed on flesh. A man or 
 woman cannot eat hog without absorbing a part of the hog nature. 
 But this part has little to do with health. Swine eat and get 
 fermented food, and all fermentation is deorganization and 
 unnatural. Flesh made from it is bulky and a source of blood- 
 disorders. 
 
 A party of experimenters some years ago tried the use of 
 meat without the fibers together with the preferred grains and 
 some milk daily ; while another party used plenty of pork and 
 whole meat. At the end of six months, the first party were, with- 
 out exception, in much better health than ever before, many having 
 become cured of certain troubles; while the second party were not 
 in good health, the blood and skin being full of disease. The 
 
 * The king-bird. " It is the smartest little bird in New England. Even the hawk, which 
 is such a terror to other birds, seems to be a source of amusement to the king-bird." 
 
PLAIN FACTS. 125 
 
 experiment has been made since; and you may easily test its 
 value as a lesson on health. Sores, ulcers, tumors, cancers, and 
 the like, are species of bacterial fermentation; and, under the 
 microscope, show bacteria and animal soil, of which meat fibers 
 form a great part. 
 
 Fat pork. — The microscope and many well attested experi- 
 ments show clearly that fat pork, when white and clean, is not the 
 same as lean pork. The fat of ham, or of salt pork, or of fresh 
 pork is very nearly a deposit of pure grease, and contains no 
 dangerous fibers. It is to lean pork what butter is to the meat of 
 the cow, an extract of grease. We are not advocating the fat of 
 pork or the use of lard ; we are simply stating that they are free 
 from any dangers in their use ; and they are as different from lean 
 pork as white is from black or a rose from the thorn, although both 
 originate together. Colored beans, the red beans preferred, when 
 cooked in fat pork, are the best food to supply iron to the blood 
 and phosphorus to the brain and nerves. We simply state these 
 as facts. 
 
 Salted meats. — Salt is a great extractor of nutrition from 
 meat. That is why we eat it on meat. But put it in a barrel and 
 let it make a nice brine, and in a short time the meat will have 
 lost nearly all its nutrition. So easily is this proved that a simple 
 analysis of the brine water will show that the nutrition of the 
 lean meat has been drawn out of it by the salt. The brine is not 
 eaten ; it is thrown away. The meat that remains is just as nutri- 
 tious as the mummy-flesh of Egypt ; except that the fat has held 
 its own and is rich in nutrition of its kind. 
 
 Scurvy and Sores. — To the use of ham, corned-beef, and 
 similar preservations, the scurvy of sailors and familiar complaints 
 of soldiers are entirely due. Corned-beef and pork, by their fibers, 
 have made many a grave. 
 
 Monotony. — No matter how good the food may be, the con- 
 stant use of one kind, or of one course, is not desirable. For 
 variations, see the chapter on Ralston Day. 
 
 Relish. — Undoubtedly relish is a guide, but it must be the 
 relish of the whole substance, not the surface. Potatoes fried thin 
 are pleasant to the taste, but the pleasure comes from the fat in 
 which they are fried. Fry them without the fat and they are not 
 liked. We have seen dogs and cats refuse bread ; but as soon as it 
 was dipped in gravy, they would eat it. We then dipped sawdust 
 
126 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 in gravy, and afterwards pieces of pine wood, and they ate them 
 eagerly. A child who loves candy will swallow sugar-coated pills, 
 because of their relish. Remember that the surface of a thing 
 determines the taste of it ; and do not be misled by a false relish. 
 Digestion. — The elements of the body are supplied in three 
 general kinds of food: fibrine, albumen and starches. Fibrine 
 from meat causes nervous derangement, clogs the system, leads 
 to organic trouble and soil-disease. Unless you breathe deeply, 
 and exercise in the open air, it is well to avoid it. Albumen (in 
 eggs and flesh more properly spelled albumin) is interchangeable 
 in its results with milk, and is largely present in all blood. It is 
 digested in the first stomach. Starches are forms of sugar, and 
 are not digested in the first stomach ; but pass on readily to be 
 utilized, provided they come to the stomach in solution. All bread is 
 starch food. All starch food should be salivated in the mouth, 
 
 and there made solu- 
 '- ble. If this is not 
 
 done, the stomach will 
 be clogged and seriously 
 injured by lumps of 
 bread or cake dropped 
 into it. So true is this 
 great fact that much 
 stomach trouble may be 
 averted by masticating 
 such foods thoroughly 
 before swallowing. An 
 animal depends upon 
 the mouth for the chief 
 part of its digestion ; a 
 cat or dog will chew 
 bread, and swallow meat 
 Fig. 23. in whole chunks. It is 
 
 The glands of the human tace, which furnish saliva and yjerfectlv Safe for a per- 
 the means of digesting bread, grains and sugars. F J -r 
 
 son to swallow large 
 pieces of meat whole ; for the stomach attends to tearing them to 
 pieces. In fact the fibrine causes less trouble if the stomach tears 
 it to pieces. Of course we do not recommend such a way of eat- 
 ing. We state merely the facts of nature. 
 
 Health from Eating. — Unless bacteria have obtained pos- 
 
PLAIN FACTS. 127 
 
 session of your body or some organ, you may regulate every 
 species of sickness by the food you eat and the exercise you take. 
 Until the stomach will digest fresh milk, health is an utter impos- 
 sibility. The majority of people cannot take milk, as it sours on 
 the stomach. To take lime or other things with milk is both un- 
 natural and fruitless. We do not insist upon milk being taken as 
 a food, but as a test; if it sours you may rest assured that bacteria 
 and animal soil are present and around the vital organs. This test 
 is of the greatest importance. 
 
 How people go into a decline. — The story is quickly told. 
 There is no appetite on arising ; due to soU-disedse. Instead of a 
 good breakfast, cofifee is given as a stimulant, "because without it 
 sickness would follow." No exercise is taken, " as not enough has 
 been eaten to afford strength." The coffee, or the stimulant, or 
 the meat, will increase the soil-disease, as that is the chief func- 
 tion; the lack of exercise increases the soO-disease ; the soil-disease 
 destroys the appetite. A person who will not eat a hearty meal in 
 the morning cannot keep well. 
 
 The Cure. — The only way to cure the soil-disease is to avoid 
 taking stimulants until thoroughly well. Let coffee and tea alone. 
 Let meat fibres alone. They all make dead animal soil and keep 
 it in the body. The next step is to starve at night and exercise. 
 Eat twice a day ; at morning and at noon ; and, perhaps, as late 
 as three in the afternoon. Get fresh air ; get glame and exercise. 
 As soon as the appetite craves a hearty breakfast without coffee, 
 then resume the regular meals. The body needs fuel before the 
 da\''s activities, not after them. 
 
 Struck by lightning.— Glame, or the glow of health, is \ital- 
 electricity. When it is at a low ebb, the functions of the body are 
 depressed, and the system seems all tired out. It is at this time 
 that the germs of disease make great progress, while food stagnates. 
 The appetite is flat, having no keenness. Bacteria make inroads 
 into all the organs and flesh, simply because the vitality of disease 
 is greater than that of the organic tissue of the healthy body. Ex- 
 periments with glame prove valuable, and show us that these con- 
 ditions may be reversed. When the health- tissue is surcharged 
 with electrical vitality, the germs of disease are slain. The current 
 of glame may be changed into a self-generated magnetic volume, 
 which wiU destroy disease germs, just as animal life is destroyed 
 by lightning. 
 
128 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 (third point of health.) 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF EXERCISE. 
 
 CWHEN here's to the oak, the brave old oak 
 ^s-^ Who stands in his pride alone ; 
 
 And still flourish he, a hale green tree, 
 
 When a hundred years are gone, 
 
 H. F. Chorley. 
 
 Hoto matiQ people there are toho necer enjot) their toork! Thei| are dead but 
 
 unbvLried."—ShaJ'tesbtiry. 
 
 MAN wagered that he could He in bed a week without any- 
 material change in his health. Upon arising he found that 
 he had not strength sufficient to enable him to stand on 
 his feet. Muscles, bones, tissues, nerves and even the 
 blood had been vitiated, and were remarkably weaker. 
 He could not understand why absolute stillness should 
 not rest a man, instead of destroying his strength. Another man 
 carried his arm in a sling for three months to see what w^ould hap- 
 pen to it. The muscles and skin shrivelled, and the flesh was 
 flabby and sickly. The bone of the arm became stiff" as though 
 all the vital spring had departed from it. 
 
 People who do not exercise sufficiently have flabby flesh, 
 soft and sickly muscles, and their bones are dry as chalk, and are 
 easily broken in a fall. On the other hand, if sufficient exercise is 
 taken, the bones are full of sap and have a spring or flexibility 
 that will resist a fracture. Such a person is generally safe against 
 disease. Persons once in health ought never to be ill, if general 
 attention is paid to the Four Cardinal Points of Health ; and per- 
 sons in Class Two should obtain good health by following the 
 course prescribed in volumes two and three of this club; after 
 which they may always remain in Class One. It is only a weak- 
 ened person who is attacked by contagious diseases, or epidemics 
 such as La Grippe. 
 
 We will lay down the great law of exercise which is as follows : 
 
 E ALSTON LAW OF EXERCISE. 
 
 Nutrition is drawn into any part of the body in proportion to the 
 amount of movement of that part. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF EXERCISE. VZ9 
 
 This rule is subject to two limitations : 
 
 1. The nutrition can come only from proper food. 
 
 2. The movement must not be excessive. 
 
 Food, however nutritious it may be, will not become a part of 
 the active, vital organism, until it is drawn to some portion of the 
 body by exercise, and that part receives it as nutrition. Much 
 valuable food in lazy people passes away in the excretions or 
 becomes effete in the system. Such persons have bad breaths and 
 carry a semi-corpse about. 
 
 If you are ill, you will find it necessary to become a com- 
 plete member, and as such you will be benefited by the Massage 
 cure, and the Swedish movements, which are given in Vol. PII, 
 together with the full course of Physical Culture. 
 
 Exercise and movements have for generations been a part of 
 all methods of aiding the physicians to restore health in the 
 patient. To establish and maintain two great forces is the main 
 object of all the operations of the human system. These are the 
 mechanical and nervous forces. 
 
 To improve these capabilities, and to train them to their 
 proper use is, in short, to put an individual in possession of him- 
 self. Ill health is evidence of loss of such control; medical efforts 
 are merely endeavors to restore this control. 
 
 According to Draper, the water taken into the system of a 
 man weighing 140 pounds, in the course of twenty-four hours, 
 amounts to 4.1 lbs.; the dry food, 2.25 lbs.; the oxygen. 2.19 lbs.; 
 the whole amounting to about eight and a half pounds of material 
 every day, furnished the system to sustain its powers. A propor- 
 tionate amount, we discover, is discharged from the body in the 
 same time, there being no increase of its weight. But in the 
 meantime these materials have become greatly changed in conse- 
 quence of chemical combinations with other. About a pound and 
 a half of water has been produced, half a pound of carbon has 
 been dismissed through the lungs, and great varieties of organic 
 and earthy salts have been concocted in the system, and drained 
 off by the kidneys. To convey oxygen and nutriment to the 
 changing structures, about twenty-five pounds of blood have been 
 kept in unceasing circulation through all, even to the minutest, 
 channels of the body ; and about twenty-one pounds of solvent 
 juices have been poured into the digestive canal to effect the 
 solution of the food, to be again absorbed into the blood. 
 
130 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 The plan of Nature is evident ; man must move daily, not as 
 a drudge, but as a being of pride and beauty. The human form 
 should not toil in unremitting menial labor; but must perform the 
 strong and the light duties of work in order to balance and stimu- 
 late muscular growth, and keep the blood moving vigorously. 
 Work is noble; but to make it drudgery is base. There is no 
 labor so low that a nobleman cannot perform it. Abraham 
 Lincoln and his wife, in a humble home, performing all the 
 duties of life with no servant excepting their own hands of flesh, 
 were not degraded by honest toil. Laziness destroys the pith of 
 men and women and grows on people. If you once submit to it, it 
 is hard to arouse yourself from its lassitude. 
 
 By way of review let us state that — 
 
 1. Nutrition to the body can only come through the activity 
 of the body. 
 
 2. Food attracted to any part of the body by exercise, gives 
 health and vigor to that part. 
 
 3. Food, no matter how nutritious it may be in its elements, 
 is not so easily drawn into the organic life of the system, or 
 " assimilated," unless muscular activity is going on. Much of the 
 best food, not being assimilated, is lost as waste. 
 
 4. Assimilated food, after having served its purpose, becomes 
 effete ; and such effete matter should be thrown off by exercise afnd 
 the eating of fruit. 
 
 5. The strength of the muscle is in its own fibers ; these assim- 
 ilate nutrition only when excited by exercise; when idle they 
 waste away as seen in Figure 24. 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 Wasting away of muscular fibers in the midst of muscular 
 tissue, resulting in a breaking up of the muscles; due to 
 lack of exercise. The above is an exact condition, except 
 that the fibers are magnified. 
 
181 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 A CODE OF PRACTICE. 
 
 5|PIFE. unexplored, is hope's perpetual blaze— 
 •^ When past, one long, involved, and darksome maze: 
 But, that some mighty power controls the whole, 
 A secret intuition tells the soul. 
 
 Winter. 
 
 'We rust and decaij in proportion as ice allotc the machinery of the bodg to remain 
 
 idle."— Shqftesbury. 
 
 EN and women who are not in a position to devote a 
 specified amount of time daily to the full exercise of 
 the body, will be pleased to have us furnish them with 
 a code of practice which shall contain the simplest 
 possible movements, and yet be efiective in serving 
 the demands of health. Such is the purpose of the 
 present chapter. In place of a complete system (for which there 
 could be no room in a book of this kind), we now offer the present 
 code of practice. It is simple and without elaboration ; and is not 
 in any sense a part of the regular system of the book of Complete 
 Membership. 
 
 The principles should not be lost sight of. It is a fact that 
 all parts of the body commence to decay when not exercised suffi- 
 ciently ; but it is equally true that over-exercise will destroy, by 
 force, the supporting tissue of the bones and muscles. Violence is 
 at all times to be avoided. The great athletes all break down 
 before they reach the prime of life. This fact should not make us 
 afi*aid of exercise, for on the other hand, the bones become as dry 
 as chalk and very brittle when not used and exercised sufficiently ; 
 so with the muscles and other parts of the body. 
 
 When the body is in health the bones are not the dry, d«ad, 
 blanched things they seem to be, but are moist, living, pinkish ' 
 structures, covered with a tough membrane, while the hollow is 
 filled with marrow, rich in fat and full of blood vessels. Let these 
 vessels become closed and the bone soon dries. Exercise alone 
 can keep the blood circulating through the bones. If a person 
 fails to exercise, the nutrition will be cut off", and the bones 
 become so dry that they are likely to break on the slightest fall. 
 
132 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Every bone in the body should be given some test of its strength 
 daily. 
 
 The first exercise to be performed is to learn to stand on 
 the tips of the toes and to keep in good balance. This is of course 
 quite difficult, but its difficulty is the main charm of its success. 
 We wish now to add to the difficulty by having 
 you endeavor to stand on the tip of one foot ; by 
 the tip we mean the extremes of the toes. When 
 this can be done easily, make an effort to rise, 
 while counting five slowly, on the tips of the feet; 
 then take each foot in turn. This is almost 
 impossible to a nervous person, but its very 
 difficulty adds to the glow of pleasure when 
 it is accomplished, and keeps the attention of 
 the person on the exercise. We hold that exer- 
 cise done mechanically never produces the 
 effects that are desired. For people, however 
 sedentary they may be in their habits, to walk 
 when they do not feel like it or do not take an 
 interest in walking, is only to add to their 
 weariness. Exercise should be desired and 
 liked in order to be exhilarating. 
 
 The second exercise is to place the right 
 arm in front of the body, and try to clinch the 
 fist as tightly as possible without moving the 
 arm; then try this with both arms in turn. 
 Endeavor to put all the will-power that you 
 possess into the fists, for here lies the greatest 
 physical expression of the body. 
 
 The third exercise is to bring the fists 
 back to the chest with the greatest rapidity, 
 while keeping them clinched with will-energy. 
 Try to make the motion so rapid that the eye 
 cannot detect the passing of the arm through 
 the air. It is well known that those who prac- 
 tice legerdemain, or sleight of hand, deceive their audiences by the 
 wonderful rapidity with which they can make the hand pass 
 through the air. So we can all obtain that same speed by sufficient 
 practice ; and we challenge any person to invent any more pleasant 
 or exhilarating exercise than this. Its effect on the health is very 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 A dry bone ; due to lack 
 
 of exercise. 
 
A CODE OF PRACTICE. 
 
 183 
 
 marked and speedy. All the good results, however, will be lost in 
 the hands of a person who does not observe the precaution to keep 
 the fists tightly clinched with all the will-power possible, while 
 the arms are being moved with this great rapidity. 
 
 The fourth exercise involves the whole body. Take a 
 standing position and lower the body so that the heels are nearly 
 or quite touched by the hips. Rise from this as slowly as possible. 
 Repeat for a number of weeks until the limbs ate made very 
 strong; then try to rise slowly, but with a little more will- 
 power each time, so that the tendency of the body on coming up 
 is to jump from the floor about an inch or so. Do not jump, as 
 this is too violent. The rise must be steady and full of energy. 
 Smoothness is better than a jerky leap. All jerky motions are 
 injurious to good health and good nerves ; in fact, it is well urged 
 that the breaking down of the nervous system, which is so com- 
 mon with all athletes sooner or later, is due directly to the bad 
 habit of making so many jerky motions. This is the fault of all 
 gymnasiums. The true principle is that great will-power and 
 strong, steady energy should accompany all practice, without 
 jerky movements. Mere rapidity, as we have shown, is not jerki- 
 ness. 
 
 The fifth exercise is of the lungs. When we are born we 
 commence to breathe, and do not cease until we die. Life is not 
 only dependent upon the air we breathe, but our health is directly^ 
 affected by the amount of oxygen we inhale. In sleep nine per- 
 sons out of ten inhale through- 
 the mouth. In waking hours 
 nearly all persons inhale^ 
 through the mouth while: 
 catching breath during conver- 
 sation; while a majority who 
 do not have catarrh keep the 
 mouth shut when not convers- 
 ing. 
 
 Figure 26 shows the kind 
 provision of Nature for the pro- 
 tection of the lungs and throat, 
 and the prevention of catarrh, consumption, bronchitis, sore throat, 
 and inflamed tonsils. This chamber is above the mouth, the lower 
 bone of the picture representing the roof of the mouth, or the 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 The great nasal chamber. 
 
134 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 sounding board of the voice. The nasal chamber is just above 
 this mouth roof, and its condition determines the nature of the 
 singing or speaking voice. Any mucus collected in the nasal 
 chamber will destroy the vocal resonance, as, for instance, if you 
 should try to say " My Mary, come home," it would sound like 
 "By Bary, cubhobe." 
 
 Mouth inhalations are dangerous to the health for four 
 reasons: 1. They chill the throat and colds result; 2. They dry 
 the throat and irritation results; 3. They carry dust into the 
 throat and lungs, and irritation and disease result. 4. They carry 
 animal and vegetable life into the system, and poison to the blood, 
 and contagious diseases result. How about the nose ? Well, there 
 are spongy filters in the nasal- chambers which catch all the dust 
 and neutralize all poisons, furnish moisture, and prevent the direct 
 contact of cold air against the throat. We have experimented in 
 thousands of cases, and we are sure that persons who know noth- 
 ing of the importance of nose-breathing, are ignorant of the first 
 great step toward health, and the avoidance of colds in the head, 
 and throat and lung troubles. If the stomach is not empty and 
 the person takes no breath through the mouth, it is perfectly safe 
 to enter any room where another is ill with a contagious disease. 
 The following exercises will not develop the lungs but will keep 
 them in good health : 
 
 1. Inhale as deeply and as long as possible. 
 
 2. Exhale as deeply and as long as possible. 
 
 3. Walk five steps while holding the lungs as full of air as 
 possible. 
 
 4. Walk five steps while the lungs are absolutely empty. 
 Rest at least a minute between each exercise. Do not practice 
 
 the above at the time of practicing in GLAME. 
 
 Catarrh is due solely to bacteria and animal soil, and is 
 caused by mouth inhalations. We do not pretend to cure it in 
 the present Volume, as the purpose of the General Membership is 
 not to deal with specific cures ; but every case of catarrh, except 
 where the bones have been rotted, may be completely cured by the 
 natural process stated in the book of Complete Membership. We 
 have cured thousands, and have yet to see the first failure. 
 
 The sixth exercise is of the skin. This is not Massage, 
 that vast system of movements which has caused so many persons 
 to arise as it were from the grave in the full restoration of health. 
 
A CODE OF PRACTICE. 136 
 
 As to that we will have more to say ; but at this place our subject 
 is more superficial. 
 
 The Skin. What is it for ? To encase the body merely. 
 But it has life, and is filled with thousands of avenues of inter- 
 communication. 
 
 Activity of the Skin. — Stagnation is the first cause of decay, 
 and the first step in it. Moving air purifies itself. Plants do not 
 do so well in a room of still air, even if a new quantity of fresh 
 air is let in every hour. Exercise in still air, however pure, is 
 not as health-giving as in moving air. Still water alone becomes 
 stagnant and impure. Moving water purifies itself. A quiet, 
 inactive skin becomes stagnant and putrid. The pores become 
 blocked and filled with dead matter of the foulest character in 
 many cases. 
 
 Cleansing is not sufficient. To be sure cleansing removes 
 the debris already on hand, but does not give activity to the skin. 
 The two should be combined. The skin is a covering of leather, 
 tough, thick and capable of renewing itself. It should be kept 
 soft, firm, clean and active. If these four things are observed the 
 skin will last over nine hundred years. 
 
 1. How to keep the Skin Soft. — Activity is one of the best 
 methods. This will be explained under that head. Combine 
 activity with any lubricant, such as sweet oil ; knead it thoroughly 
 into the skin for a few minutes every da}', and the result will be 
 purity of surface and softness. The complexion will improve 
 wonderfully. The oil should be completely eradicated by the use 
 of soap and hot water, followed by a dash of cold water over the 
 skin. 
 
 2. How to keep the Skin Firm. — Activity is one of the best 
 methods to accomplish this; cold water is also necessary, and 
 generally should be preceded by hot water. A slight sudden dash 
 of cold water on a hot skin produces a contrast which causes the 
 skin to contract and solidify without losing its softness. This is 
 excellent for skin diseases, and will ensure a good complexion. 
 
 3. How to keep the Skin Clean. — See the chapter on 
 bathing. 
 
 4. How to keep the Skin Active. — This should be attended 
 to daily as a means of exercise of the highest importance. The 
 two following modes of exercising the skin are very pleasant and 
 exhilarating : Place the palm of the hand flatly and firmly on the 
 
136 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 surface, and move the hand alternately in four directions, right, 
 left, up and down. Do this on every part of the scalp, forehead, 
 face, neck, shoulders, arms, chest, back, sides, abdomen, legs and 
 feet, in fact the entire body. This method starts into new life all 
 the ligaments, tissues, nerves and blood vessels leading to the skin 
 and in it. Do not bruise or pinch the skin under any circum- 
 stances, or irritate it. When the entire body has been thus treated, 
 the next mode of exercising the flesh is to knead it. This is done 
 by taking the skin in the hands between the thick of the thumb 
 and the fingers, and gathering up as much of the flesh as possible, 
 without pinching it — as to produce any irritation of the skin is to 
 invite to the surface the poisonous humors which would not 
 otherwise have been excited into life, and which will pass off" in 
 other directions. This mode of exercising the flesh is one of the 
 most healthful means of keeping it active ; and activity is a sure 
 way of preserving the life of the skin. The effect on the com- 
 plexion is quite remarkable. We have seen some of the worst 
 complexions that could be found anywhere made completely new 
 by this and the other modes of treating it suggested in this book. 
 The next chapter on cleansing the skin will aid in the results 
 which we are seeking in this. 
 
 Frequent rests are more valuable than long ones. A 
 minute's exercise followed by a minute's rest and continued for a 
 half hour or longer would give many times greater results than the 
 omission of rest or the taking of longer periods in the midst of 
 practice. 
 
 Sleep is certainly a very important theme for our discussion. 
 It is an established fact that as soon as the sun passes its meridian 
 at noon time, its vitalizing influences are being withdrawn. This 
 withdrawing is not marked for several hours, and it is not until the 
 sun is low in the western sky that the flowers and cattle, and all 
 life, both vegetable and animal— excepting man — withdraw from 
 the activities of the day and prepare for slumber. Three hours 
 sleep before midnight is equal to six hours after. Too much sleep 
 in the morning deadens the nerves, because it is contrary to the 
 vitalizing influences of the existence we are passing through. Per- 
 sons who sleep late in the morning are thick-headed. Too much 
 sleep after midnight is the cause. 
 
 The seventh exercise is of the hair. We present the pict- 
 ure of a single hair, in Figure 27. The root is seen, deep down in 
 
A CODE OF PRACTICE. 
 
 137 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
 A single root of hair highly mag- 
 nified. 
 
 the skin. It is a wonderful little life in 
 itself. It may be pulled out and lost ; 
 or it may be cut and made stronger. 
 Frequent trimming is its exercise, even 
 if but a tiny bit of the end is taken ofif. 
 The scalp needs combing twice a day, 
 with a fine comb, or brush ; but it should 
 never be irritated. The hair is an 
 absorber of electrical vitality, if it is 
 kept clean and dry. The many thou- 
 sands exert a combined influence, each 
 acting like a lightning rod and gathering 
 magnetism for the brain and nervous 
 system. In men the hair should be at 
 least two inches long; if shorter, the 
 brain is weakened. In women it should 
 be of womanly length, not short. The 
 hair is a nest of dust collected from the 
 atmosphere ; and of animal- 
 soil oozing out from within. 
 Figure 28 shows a heap of 
 this soil at the surface of 
 
 the skin, and clinging to the hair itself. 
 The animal refuse matter soon becomes 
 rancid, and the hair has a very bad odor. 
 This could be easily prevented by brush- 
 ing or combing the soil away twice daily. 
 The teeth need attention five 
 times a day: first on arising, second 
 after breakfast, third after the noon 
 meal, fourth after the evening meal, and 
 fifth before retiring. If you neglect 
 them, we will promise to find tartar 
 adhering to their enamel, and in this 
 tartar we promise to find for you, under 
 the microscope, a number of hving 
 germs, crawling around each tooth. 
 They are often diptheria germs ; and, 
 when they have multiplied, they get into 
 the throat. 
 
 Fig. 28. 
 
 A single root of neglected hair, 
 
 with animal-soil on the skin. 
 
138 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 THE RALSTON GENERAL BATH, 
 
 ^ H ! What avail the largest gifts of Heaven, 
 /^^ When drooping health and spirits go amiss? 
 How tasteless then whatever can be given! 
 Health is the vital principle of bliss. 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 U cleanliness is next to Godliness, a thorough bath is practical 
 
 Qoodness."— Shaftesbury. 
 
 T is a lamentable fact that very few persons know how 
 to bathe correctly. There are many books that give 
 advice as to the necessity of bathing, and some add a 
 few hints ; but we will be the first to deal with the 
 subject in a thorough manner, and at the same time 
 correct some of the popular notions as to the effect of 
 bathing. We will not lose sight of the fact that the accumulation 
 of dead matter on the surface of the body causes a rapid decay of 
 the skin, and prepares it for the eruptions that are sure to follow. 
 In the middle ages the people did not bathe at all, and skin dis- 
 eases of all kinds, as well as plagues and epidemics, were rampant. 
 In proportion as the people bathe they have good complexions 
 and clear skins. The one law of death is only the law of disinte- 
 gration. Stagnation causes the latter, and that is why we die at all. 
 King Humbert of Italy, travelling with a duke, stopped at 
 a peasant's house. The duke objected to the odor of the peasant 
 when taking his seat at the table by his side. The king said : " I 
 will smell as bad if I do not bathe for four days." To prove it, 
 the king omitted his bath for that length of time, and the duke 
 said : " Your majesty was right." The animal-soil oozes out at the 
 pores in a thick gummy mass and sticks to the skin. Being like 
 glue, it attracts the dust from without ; and the two form a cover- 
 ing which is most unhealthy. It is dangerous to fill up the pores ; 
 as it drives all the refuse matter back in the blood. Varnish the 
 skin all over the body, and you will die in a few hours. Yet soil 
 acts somewhat like a coat of varnish. 
 
 The odor is not noticeable to you, but everybody who comes 
 near you finds that you " smell sour." The animal-soil has fer- 
 
THE RALSTON GENERAL BATH. 139 
 
 mented, and is getting rotten. No wonder the lack of bathing 
 leads to skin diseases ! This soil is rankest under the armpits, 
 between the shoulder blades, in the middle of the body, and at 
 the feet. These four places should be wet daily, either in the 
 morning or at night, and then rubbed very dry and very hard with 
 a towel. 
 
 There are three kinds of Ralston General Baths. The first 
 is with cold water, the second with warm water, the third with hot 
 water. A Ralston Bath is peculiar, and its distinctive features are 
 natural, and may be easily learned. The three principles are: 
 cleanliness, pleasure and safety. As there are tests of the presence 
 of soil-disease within (foul breath, lack of morning appetite and 
 gour stomach) ; so there is one test of soil-disease ivithout, and that 
 is at the feet. All life, or all living, consists of the breaking down 
 of tissues in exchange for their vitality. Freshly destroyed tissues 
 are not disagreeable ; they are the same as the fibers of fresh meat. 
 The breath of a healthy person has not the slightest unpleasant 
 smell, for its carbon dioxide is odorless. Freshly deposited soil 
 on the skin is not poisonous. The old experiment of breathing 
 from healthy lungs into a glass jar, proves that no odor is present 
 until the tissues in the air die, ferment and rot. This would be 
 soil-disease if such decay took place in the body or on the skin. 
 Be careful that it does not. If you wish to know how soon a pure 
 exhalation decays, try the jar experiment. In just the same time 
 the skin-soil decays. The test is at the feet. Their odor is a key 
 to the entire body. They should be as sweet to the smell as the 
 cleanly face. The time to bathe is the time when the odor of the 
 feet is not pure. 
 
 The cold bath is a means of pleasure to one who can endure 
 it. Although sudden shocks of cold water have led to miraculous 
 cures and introduced the new system of water curing, yet the fact 
 remains that such shocks are dangerous to weak constitutions. 
 We recommend, if you wish to use cold water, to gradually 
 acquire the power to endure it, by reducing its temperature little 
 by little. 
 
 The >varm bath is valuable. Its temperature should begin 
 at 98 degrees, in a room at 70 degrees. It should end with cool 
 water. 
 
 The hot bath is very exhausting, but very cleansing. Hot 
 water destroys soil-matter and certain species of bacteria. All 
 
140 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 bathing to be safe must proceed as follows. If you are cold, 
 remove only the final clothing about the neck and let the rest 
 remain, although it may get wet. Take a sponge or cloth and use 
 water as hot as you can endure it, all around the face and neck ; 
 then make a soap foam around the neck and face ; rinse in warm 
 water; dip the sponge or cloth in cold water, get all traces of soap 
 off, rinse again in cold water; instantly wipe dry, not by rubbing 
 but by patting with a dry towel. The true Ralston bath requires 
 you to do this before you wash or wet the chest, or any other part 
 of the body. 
 
 Test of Ralstonism. — To prove the Ralston idea, proceed 
 with the chest and shoulders only, in the same way. As soon as 
 the use of the water has passed from hot to the warm and then to 
 the cold, and the chest has been wiped perfectly dry, you will be able 
 to undress, for the body will be all aglow. If you have been nude 
 all the time, you will notice, as soon as the chest is dry, a glow 
 of warmth travelling over the whole body, making it possible to 
 endure the chill of a cold room. You should then bathe the 
 abdomen, and wipe dry ; then the limbs and wipe dry ; then the 
 feet; always ending in cold water. The limbs may be dried by 
 rubbing with a towel, but not the chest, neck or face. 
 
 How often ? A daily bath is recommended ; but the use of 
 hot water is weakening. The warm bath is of blood temperature, 
 and therefore not weakening. A good Ralstonite will bathe the 
 whole body twice a week; and the feet, middle, arm-pits and back 
 every day. 
 
 Clothing. — It is useless to state some facts, as they lead to 
 no good results. If we should advise a daily wetting and dry- 
 wiping of the entire body, requiring about five minutes, and a 
 daily change of underclothing, few if any of our members would 
 do these things. Dead animal soil is found clinging to the under- 
 clothing; and it is worn for days in that condition. Health does 
 not demand, but is promoted, by a daily change of underwear. 
 The expense and trouble forbid the adoption of such a rule. Yet, 
 if possible, try a change twice a week. What shall we say of the 
 thousands who do not even change once a week, and whose periods 
 of bathing are epochs in their careers ? The underclothing of day 
 could be laid aside at night, and that of night laid aside by day. 
 The clothing worn next the skin should be changed over night, 
 even if worn again without washing. 
 
141 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXI 
 
 (FOUBTH POEfT OF HEALTH.) 
 
 CULTIVATION OF CHEERFULNESS. 
 
 IM'HAT then remains, but well our power to use, 
 ^MM^ And keep good-humor still, whate'er we lose? 
 And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail, 
 When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding faiL 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Cheerfulness is flexible ; it may be culticated to the highest degree."— <Sft<^^te8&urj/. 
 
 NE of the great American papers, in a leading editorial 
 in 1893, gave utterance to the following views, which 
 are published in full : " It is remarkable that a man 
 82 years of age should be at the head of the English 
 government, and that he should be able to bear the 
 strain of taking the chief part in the election which 
 brought him there. Mr. Gladstone seems to defy all expectations, 
 but the surprise is taken away when one finds out that his health 
 has a substantial basis in three facts — a sound constitution whose 
 integrity he has never violated, a devoted wife who saves him from 
 worry, and a first-class physician who regulates his living and sees 
 to it that he does not go beyond the limits of what he can safely 
 do. In exercise, in rest, in diet, and in sleep every effort is made 
 to secure for him the best possible conditions. Only in this way 
 could his life be maintained at its present vigor. He is a fine 
 example of what can be achieved when the foundation of life and 
 usefulness is laid in physical health. Mr. Gladstone is a standing 
 witness of what a man can do who obeys the laws of his physical 
 existence as carefully as all men ought to obey the laws of God. 
 He may hope to live, under present arrangements, until his phys- 
 ical system is entirely worn out. The late Dr. James Freeman 
 Clarke was an instance of what a man can accomplish who pursues 
 a similar course. He was born four months later than Mr. Glad- 
 stone, and might have been living today if an accident had not 
 broken him up. He was remarkabl}^ busy down into old age, and 
 was always remarkably well. When asked one day how he could 
 keep up the strain in his old age, he immediately said: *I never 
 worry ; I take all the sleep I need ; I am always regular in my 
 
142 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 habits ; and I maintain a cheerful disposition.' By these four rules 
 he lived, and it is evident that Mr. Gladstone also still lives by fol- 
 lowing practically the same plan." Dr. Clarke had four rules by 
 which he lived : the first " I never worry," and the last " I maintain 
 a cheerful disposition." These are one and the same, and the 
 alpha and omega of his life were founded on cheerfulness. 
 
 What is this one great factor of good health and longevity, 
 and whence comes it? Is it light-heartedness ? No, for that is 
 often an illogical good nature. Is it pleasure ? Not necessarily, 
 for that is the lot of those who are fortunately situated, and such 
 is not the case with all of us at all times. A great misconception 
 of cheerfulness occurs when one tries to look pleasant, to smile, to 
 be jolly, to be even flippant. Others are counted cheerful who are 
 full of mirth ; but experience shows that " comical geniuses " have 
 their reverses, and the funny man of today is the despondent man 
 of tomorrow. True cheerfulness is of three kinds : 
 
 1. — Plain contentment. 
 
 2. — Happy contentment. 
 
 3. — Happiness. 
 
 These are degrees of each other, and we will discuss them 
 in their order ; but first we would lead our reader and member 
 solemnly and sacredly into a more profound consideration of that 
 foundation of true cheerfulness which must be laid in the depths 
 of every life, known as Ethical Culture ; or the One Hundred 
 Points of Character, the sixtieth degree book of the Ralston Club. 
 A structure cannot rest upon air, and here we have the grandest 
 structure of our earthly existence. To be contented or cheerful 
 upon nothing is a false hope ; it cannot be. 
 
 Plain contentment is the first or lower stratum of cheerful- 
 ness. It may abound in tears or smiles, have its ups and downs, 
 its todays and tomorrows ; but it holds the even tenor of its way, 
 like a rope of gold amidst a rift of clouds, leading us ever upward, 
 and binding the soul of today with the God of tomorrow. 
 
 Happy contentment is the middle stratum of cheerfulness. 
 In it we find some of the sweetness of life, and the now budding 
 graces of heart and mind. It is the richer and better fruit in the 
 ripening of our character. 
 
 Happiness is peace and joy found only in the citadel of char- 
 acter. It comes always and surely to those who seek it ; and with 
 it we learn that disease is a sin and poverty unnecessary. 
 
CULTiyATION OF CHEERFULNESS. 148 
 
 Friends tell us that cheerfulness is the source of health and 
 happiness; and therefore we are advised to be cheerful. It is 
 preached from the pulpit, fulminated from the press and drawn 
 from the lives and sayings of all successful characters : be cheer- 
 ful. But how ? Can a person sit down and summon a certain 
 amount of this essence of health and happiness at will? No, 
 cheerfulness must grow, and it requires time. The fruit is either 
 plain contentment, happy contentment or happiness. 
 
 Any member of the Ralston Health Club who possesses all 
 three of these degrees of cheerfulness, and who abides by the 
 simple rules of the other three Points of Health ought to live., and 
 will live, to an extreme and happy old age, retaining the full use 
 of all the faculties, and shaming those younger persons who regard 
 old age as a period of dependence and uselessness. Will you, with 
 us, endeavor to linger in the golden days of life's early autumn by 
 living a new existence from this time forward? If so, cheerful- 
 ness must be one corner-stone of such a life; and this must be 
 cultivated. It grows fastest and strongest when adversity knocks 
 at the door in vain, or irritation and disappointment are frequent 
 visitors, but are unable to drive it from the heart. It needs a cloud 
 to test its genuineness. 
 
 All the world agrees that cheerfulness begets good diges- 
 tion; brightens the eye; lightens the heart; tempers pleasure; 
 and stamps a rainbow upon every tear of sorrow. But how can a 
 quality so evanescent affect the particles of matter which make up 
 the physical body ? There is no answer to this question except 
 upon the theory that such a force as GLAME exists. This great 
 truth is everywhere presented to us in little things. A pear is 
 luscious ; but we can pick up every day all the elements which 
 form the pear, and we can mix them in the exact proportions of 
 the most relishable pear ever tasted ; but the result is nauseating. 
 We cannot put GLAME into the pear. 
 
 As GLAME is to food, so cheerfulness is to digestion. 
 Experiments were made which showed that the stomach of a man 
 refused to deposit the juices necessary for digestion when food 
 which had lost its flavor was received into it ; and in a certain 
 case the process of digestion ceased entirely when a fancied slight 
 at the dinner table caused a young man to " pout," or become 
 gloomy ; and in still another case of a serious and almost fatal 
 attack of indigestion, the physician adopted the plan of having 
 
144 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 the "good news" brought, and thereupon the stomach deposited 
 its juices and the distress was soon gone. A young lady was ill in 
 bed, had lost her appetite, and seemed to be in a decline. The 
 promise of a trip to Europe revived her,, and she at once began to 
 get well. Such experiences are common, and a thoughtless person 
 exclaims : " 0, well, the thought of a trip to Europe wiU revive 
 anybody; it is pleasure." But how? A body can do ten times 
 as much exercising in play as in work, with less real weariness. 
 A girl who loved to dance, was prostrated with a terrible headache ; 
 an unexpected invitation to an impromptu dance at once revived 
 her. You all exclaim : " Any pleasure will make a person well." 
 Yes, if the other Points of Health are looked after. Cheerful- 
 ness affects the stomach, lungs, heart, liver and kidneys. How ? 
 Simply because it draws GLAME into these organs, and that 
 means life. 
 
 It is all about us, and cheerfulness is sure to draw it from 
 food and air. For the reason that some people will not be cheer- 
 ful under any circumstances, we doubt if such people can draw 
 GLAME by the exercises given in an earlier chapter. The three 
 degrees of cheerfulness will make every face beautiful ; the features 
 which are embellished only by mechanical nature tire us as we 
 know them ; while those which are embellished by nature grow fas- 
 cinating under the influence of their owner's kind disposition ; and 
 such people selected for husbands and wives are never wearied of. 
 First, an irritable person breathes with difficulty, and the respira- 
 tions are short. Second, a cheerful person breathes twice as much 
 air, and with pleasant ease ; consequently carrying more oxygen 
 into the system. Third, disappointment, or anything which 
 detracts from cheerfulness, causes an almost complete cessation 
 of the act of breathing; sometimes leading to fainting or pros- 
 tration. Fourth, headache is always preceded by holding the 
 breath, and letting it out in sighs, or otherwise reducing the 
 respiration to a minimum; this accelerates the headache. Sick- 
 ness is always at first accompanied by the same decrease of 
 breathing, and this causes the heart to beat faster in order to 
 support life; up goes the pulse, and fever ensues. Fifth, the 
 saliva of human beings is affected by the disposition. All good 
 physicians know this ; and it is possible for the bite of an excess- 
 ively irritable person to cause hydrophobia. A child fed upon the 
 milk of a vicious cow, died for lack of assimilation. 
 
145 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII, 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 RALSTON HEALTH DAY. 
 
 ^ 
 
 BIRTHDAY :— and now a day that rose 
 With much of hope, with meaning rife — 
 A thoughtful day from dawn to close : 
 The middle day of human life. 
 
 Jean Ingdow. 
 
 I celebrate Ralston Day because its return is alicays a source of pleasure 
 to tm."—Shafte8bui-y. 
 
 ►ALSTON DAY occurs on the first Tuesday of every 
 month for members of the Health Club, and is then 
 strictly known as Ralston Health Day. Ralston Day 
 proper is the fourth day of each month and is held 
 under the auspices of the Ralston Club which com- 
 mences at the sixth degree ; the exercises being pecu- 
 liar to the higher nature of that organization and such as would 
 be suited to the U. F. O. R. When Ralston Day and Health Day 
 both come on the same day of the month, then special provisions 
 should be made for a grand celebration. 
 
 The term Ralston Day is now applied by nearly all Ral- 
 stonites to the first Tuesday of each month, when the day is de- 
 voted to the pursuits of health. We wish every reader of this 
 book to celebrate this day, and for the following reasons: first, it 
 is an incentive to take care of the health ; second, it is a fulfilment 
 of that duty, so long neglected, which you owe to the Creator; 
 third, its influences will spread to other homes and other lives, 
 helping them to secure the blessings of health ; fourth, it will set 
 a noble example to those around you, perhaps to children or loved 
 ones whom you wish to live long and happily. 
 
 At Home on Ralston Day, if you choose to observe any 
 part of it, there are three matters which may claim your atten- 
 tion : the body, the stomach and the mind. On this day the body 
 should be clean. As soon as dressed, open the window and get 
 one hundred breaths of pure air. In order to get the lungs full, 
 always empty them on each breath. The more you breathe out 
 the more you will breathe in. Then spend one minute practicing 
 the second and third exercises as stated on page 132. 
 
146 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Breakfast. — The Ralston principle for breakfast is a very- 
 important one. Cooked grain and milk should come first. It is 
 nearest to Nature of any food known, excepting pure blood and 
 pure milk. Every breakfast the year round, where health is 
 desired, should begin with cooked grain, served with hot or cold 
 milk, with or without sugar. During the forenoon manage to get 
 another hundred deep breaths of pure air. 
 
 Lunch or Dinner. — There is a Ralston principle for the noon 
 meal ; and that is to commence the noon meal every day in the 
 year with good soup. You cannot eat too much. It should be 
 rich in meat albumen. Beef is the best. The drink is only pure 
 water. In the afternoon you must get another hundred deep 
 breaths of fresh air. 
 
 Supper. — There is a Ralston principle for supper. Muscle- 
 making food should never be eaten at the evening meal. There 
 are many delightful dishes that can then be eaten, and yet not 
 threaten sleep nor leave the body tired the next morning. The 
 muscle-foods may not keep you awake, but you will arise ex- 
 hausted the next day, for your system has been at work all night. 
 Rice is a sleep producer. To show its value we will quote the fol- 
 lowing history : A wealthy man ofiered the Club a goodly sum to 
 help spread Ralston literature, if we would do what the doctors 
 could not, cure him of sleeplessness. We prescribed a rice diet, 
 and he exclaimed, " Nature is marvellous ! Here I have been taking 
 all sorts of medicines and nerve quieters, and you have cured me 
 by telling me what to eat." We then showed him the report of an 
 emigrant ship from Asia, whose steerage passengers were fed on 
 rice and slept nearly all the time day and night. His reply was, 
 "You Ralstonites have collected many facts. Nature is a great 
 doctor, after all. I will give up medicines and pay some attention 
 to common sense." He has never been ill since, and no power on 
 earth could shake his allegiance to the Club. 
 
 What to Drink. — Tea causes a slight paralysis of the 
 nerves, and injures the kidneys, the bladder and connecting 
 organs. Coffee prevents the breaking down of used tissues, and 
 this is a temporary advantage to one who has to work hard 
 but does much harm in the long run. This holding back of 
 the tissues causes an accumulation of soil in the body. The 
 tissue matter should pass off into the air. Cocoa is good, if you 
 are sure of getting it pure. Fermentations are deorganizationa 
 
R/1LSTON HE/1LTH DAY. 147 
 
 and, beside painting the nose red and inflaming the eyelids, 
 they develop animal soil. Ordinary water is loaded with calca- 
 reous matter, causing gravel, and a general ossification. It is 
 hard to tell what to drink. As between tea and coffee, the latter 
 is better. Tea should never be touched. As between coffee and 
 wines, coffee is less dangerous. All fermentations lead to Bright' s 
 disease. The fact is, man never has solved the water question ; 
 and it is the shame of this century that, amid her splendid 
 achievements, she has not deemed it a matter of importance to 
 find the means of obtaining pure water. 
 
 Old age, or ossification, is the penalty of ignorance in regard 
 to drinking water. Undistilled drinking water is to pure water 
 what raw pork is to the cooked meat. There are three kinds of 
 food which enter the system daily ; solids, distilled liquids and 
 raw liquids. All solids contain calcareous or old-age material. 
 The distilled liquids of juicy fruits are not only free from old age 
 matter, but dissolve and draw off as much calcareous substance as 
 the solid food deposits. Fruits and solid foods, therefore, would 
 ward off decrepitude and age were it not for the raw water we 
 drink. As nature distills the water in her fruits, man should take 
 lesson and drink only distilled water. It is not only free from 
 calcareous, or old-age matter, but, like juicy fruits, will dissolve 
 and carry off all such matter contained in solid food. Nature sets 
 us great examples, and the time is not far distant when raw water 
 will be a thing of the barbaric past. 
 
 1. Get either rain water, well water, or the purest attainable. 
 
 2. Boil it, but do not allow the steam to escape after it has 
 been brought to the boiling point. This may be done by taking 
 the water from the fire the instant it begins to boil. 
 
 3. Cover it and allow it to cool. 
 
 4. Get a filter. This is very easily made. Every town and 
 city has them for sale ; but those who lack the means may make 
 one. Get a pail of wood, tin, or galvanized iron. Make several 
 small outlets at the bottom, put a cover on the top, and near the 
 top put in a shelf with an outlet in the centre about two inches in 
 diameter. Fill the space between the shelf and bottom with clean 
 sand and charcoal. Sand alone is probably sufiicient. Put a 
 sponge in the outlet of the shelf. The sponge should be cleaned 
 every morning ; the sand and charcoal need not be removed for a 
 year, or until it shows dirty water ; or the water is full of lime. 
 
148 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 5. Before using it, clean it by running water through several 
 times. Then it is ready for filtering. Charcoal absorbs poisons 
 very rapidly, while the sharp edges of the sand will catch and 
 hold the particles of mud and dirt. The boiling heat has killed 
 all germs of disease. 
 
 ^Vhile distilled water is best, yet if you drink filtered 
 water which has first been boiled, you will never ci^tch disease 
 from it ; and ripe juicy fruits will supply all the good effects of 
 distillation. Some catch rain water which is distilled by nature, 
 and this when cold is one of the best of medicines. God intended 
 rain water and fruit juices to be used in order to prevent the clog- 
 ging of the veins and the approach of old age. In communities 
 where hard water prevails, the inhabitants look from ten to forty 
 years older than they really are ; and insanity is on the increase. 
 All such water is injurious. 
 
 Ralston Day is more than an ordinary day. To be sure it 
 comes but once a month ; yet it sets a ball rolling that does not 
 stop in the next thirty days. Will you observe it? If you wish 
 to show us that you appreciate these doctrines of health ; if you 
 wish to confer upon us the greatest favor in your power ; then 
 give a few minutes' thought to your health on this blessed, glorious 
 day. We raise a flag, decorate our rooms and windows, place 
 flowers upon the table and invite our neighbors, friends and rela- 
 tives to the house. 
 
 A business man wrote us : " When you requested the mem- 
 bers of our Club to observe one day only in the month, I thought 
 it too little an effort to be worth trying; but, as I came to feel 
 better, I found the influence of that day following me all through 
 the month." 
 
 A Boston lady reports : " I am quite reformed in my habits 
 of health for a whole month after Ralston Day. On that occasion 
 I keep well because you ask me to; on the other twenty-nine 
 days, I keep well because my good sense prompts me to. But, 
 before I observed Ralston Day, I paid no attention to my habits 
 of health." 
 
 A lady in San Diego, California, writes : " I will tell you how 
 we celebrated this day (Ralston Day, February, 1895). We used 
 smilax for wall decorations, and had a large bouquet of calla lilies 
 in the parlor, and our dining-table was decorated with white mar- 
 guerites. How cheerful it seems ! It has been one of the most 
 
RALSTON HEyiLTH DAY. 149 
 
 enjoyable days we have had for a long time. We invited two of 
 our neighbors in to help us celebrate ; and last but not least we 
 sent a Ralston dinner to a sick friend, who has just joined." 
 
 A gentleman in Los Angeles, California, writes : " Two years 
 ago I had made my will because the doctors told me I could not be 
 cured. A year ago I had become somewhat better under the Ral- 
 ston natural treatment ; had I paid strict attention to the three 
 books I would have been well then. Now I am in perfect health, 
 and the doctors say I could not have been as sick as they sup- 
 posed ; but they are now Ralstonites as is nearly every doctor in 
 Los Angeles I think, and they give Ralstonism the credit. I .write 
 this because today I am holding what I call a perfect health ceLebra- 
 tion; it is my first Ralston Day in perfect health." 
 
 A Florida lady writes : " Roses and orange blossoms are in 
 and out of doors, and the windows are all open. Husband and 
 the boys are at home all the afternoon, and Ralston Day is the 
 happiest of the month." 
 
 A banker recently wrote : " I always have my family observe 
 Ralston Day. My children anxiously await it. It is to them a 
 school of health." 
 
 A physician says : " My wife, myself and three daughters 
 make Ralston Day what we think it ought to be — a day of joy and 
 celebration. I am too busy to attend to my health, but Ralston 
 Day brings me back to the line." 
 
 Another physician writes : " I am for health, although I 
 live on sickness. My patients observe the day ; and, in our 
 neighborhood, it is a popular day. The women talk it up among 
 themselves." 
 
 A lawyer says : " I am glad when Ralston Day comes. I board 
 at a small hotel; and the landlord, who is a very enthusiastic 
 Ralstonite, keeps us all reminded of the day ; at night we call our 
 friends in for a social time." 
 
 A lady writes : " I have prevailed on our pastor to read the 
 Ralston Call from his pulpit. He did it yesterday, and so nicely 
 did he approach the subject that it seemed like a usual notice. He 
 said : ^ I am requested to make public announcement of a day to 
 be devoted to the special care of the health ; and, as I believe that 
 every Christian should be equipped for the Master's work in body 
 as well as in soul, I cheerfully read the following ' (Call). The 
 people seemed interested and pleased." 
 
160 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 A young lady says : " I am seventeen, and a Ralstonite. I 
 make papa and mamma observe Ralston Day, and they help me 
 celebrate it. Trying to be cheerful is fun, and sometimes comical, 
 but we succeed." 
 
 Another young lady writes: "On Ralston Day our cousins 
 come over, and we make the house look as cheerful as we know 
 how. I am a Ralston member, and mamma is not, but she 
 remembers the day first, and says, * Don't forget to ask your cousins 
 to come over.' Several families observe the day. I am sure it will 
 become very popular." 
 
 A boy writes : " Ralston Day is the ' wellest ' day I know." 
 
 A teacher writes : " I find that the scholars know when the 
 day is near at hand. I introduce special exercises, and health and 
 cheerfulness are discussed and taught. The observance of the day 
 adds very much to the scholars' interest in such matters." 
 
 A school teacher writes : " I am very busy at this time of the 
 month, but I cannot let the day pass by. I teach the Ralston 
 ideas continually, but unconsciously at most times." 
 
 A lady writes: "At first I thought the duty every month 
 very irksome, but I would not, could not, miss it now. May 
 Heaven's richest blessings attend the Ralston Club. (My husband 
 says 'Amen ' to this.) We are both well for the first time in four- 
 teen years." 
 
 Another lady writes : " My boy, a lad of seven years, came to 
 me today and said : ' Mamma, it's Ralston Day.' To be sure it was. 
 I'm afraid I shall forget sometimes, I keep so busy." 
 
 A banker says : " It may appear strange to you that a man 
 who stands at the head of the largest bank in a large city should 
 enjoy the monthly meeting of the Club. I neglected this duty for 
 several months, but I have learned to attend promptly. I enjoy it 
 very heartily. It also serves to keep my mind on the Ralston 
 doctrines, and keep my health good. Enclosed find draft for fifty 
 dollars. Send forty books in cloth. I will give them to my sickly 
 customers, and hope to retain their patronage so much the longer, 
 if they live longer." 
 
 A college President, who is now a One-hundredth Degree Ral- 
 stonite, writes : " The problem of increase is a mighty factor in our 
 Club. Who invented it? * * * If members but half perform 
 their simple duty, why should not this movement prove to be the 
 most tremendous and most victorious of our day and generation ? 
 
RALS TON HEAL TH DA Y. 15 1 
 
 I am convinced that Ralstonism is right, morally and scientifically, 
 and I shall go on obtaining recruits as long as I live. I will do my 
 duly no matter how others may act^ 
 
 A clergyman writes : " When I die I want to be remembered 
 as having done my fellow-beings as much good as possible. Send 
 me ten books. Health is the strongest help to temperance and 
 religion." 
 
 A business man writes : " Your Club has been my best physi- 
 cian. I paid one dollar for General Membership, and have had 
 no difficulty in getting people to join since. I am now a well man. 
 My recovery was a miracle. * * * For that dollar and very little 
 efibrt I have come into the possession of emoluments (free) which 
 I would not part with for a thousand dollars." 
 
 We have thousands of letters containing the clause : " God 
 bless the Ralston Health Club V 
 
 A life insurance agent writes : '* Our company will be asked 
 to take official notice of Ralstonism. Every insured life should 
 be compelled to follow the doctrines of health just as you lay them 
 down." 
 
 A manager of life insurance agents writes : " In my district 
 every agent is a member of the Ralston Health Club, and carries a 
 supply of books, insisting that each insured person should join the 
 Club. It is a matter of business with us. One agent, who adopted 
 this plan a few years ago, wrote us recently that not one death had 
 occurred in his district, and the company is making money." 
 
 To our minds the most interesting letter in our keeping con- 
 tains these words: ''Please make me a member of the Ralston 
 Club. I never heard of it until today. As is my custom I visited 
 the sick and needy. This morning my carriage was driven to a 
 humble and very scanty home, where I had not entered for many 
 months as I had been ill. The place was as poor as ever, but it 
 was uncommonly neat and cheerful. I was told that they were 
 observing Ralston Day ; and they explained it all to me. I helped 
 them on with the celebration, as the idea seemed infectious. This 
 afternoon I called on the wife of the Governor of our great state, 
 and what was my surprise to learn from her own lips that she had 
 celebrated Ralston Day for many months ! From the lowliest to 
 the highest ! A great span !" 
 
 More than three hundred editors announce Ralston Day in 
 their papers every month. 
 
152 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 THE RALSTON CALL. 
 
 " The first Tuesday of every month is named as | 
 Ralston Day, and on this day all persons are requested to eat 
 only the purest food, drink only pure water, cultivate cheerfulness, 
 exercise liberally, and, if the day is pleasant, to spend not less than ^ 
 one hour in the pure air. By so doing it is hoped that the better 
 health which follows may lead to a higher plane of happiness and 
 usefulness in life.'''* 
 
 The above Call is intended to be used for the purpose of 
 inviting public attention to the benefits and blessings which may 
 arise from a proper observance of the laws of health on one day at 
 least in every month. If persons, and especially families, may be 
 induced to take care of the health on this day, the experiment will 
 be sure to create an interest in the matter on other days. 
 
 Copies of the Ralston Call may be obtained free of charge, 
 if you will see that they are placed before the public in some way. 
 Many editors are Ralstonites, and they gladly publish the an- 
 nouncement ; other editors do so freely for the good of the com- 
 munity. It is not stating the matter too strongly to say that more 
 than one thousand clergymen read the Ralston Call from their pul- 
 pits on the Sunday preceding the first Tuesday of every month in 
 the year. The Call should be tacked up in the post-office, railway 
 station, and in the stores or other places that may seem proper. 
 
 As a loyal Ralstonite you should insist that Ralston Day 
 be celebrated in all public and private schools every month. Many 
 of the State Legislatures have passed laws compelling the teachers 
 to instruct their pupils in physical culture and hygiene. We think 
 they should have named the Ralston System as compulsory ; for 
 the reason that it is the only American method; and we will 
 donate ten thousand dollars to the public schools if it can be 
 shown that there is any foreign system that is one-tenth as 
 valuable and beneficial as the Ralston. To any legislator who 
 will introduce and have made into a law any bill compelling Ral- 
 ston Day to be observed in the public schools, or the system to be 
 taught, and to any Ralstonite who induces any legislator to do 
 this we will confer the highest U. F. O. R. honors mentioned in 
 the Book of Complete Membership. 
 
RALS TON HEAL TH DA Y. 163 
 
 Any reasonable and sensible teacher will gladly devote 
 one hour on Ralston Day — one hour a month — to the discussion of 
 health in the school. You may safely promise such teacher the 
 influence and good will of all Ralstonites, which will prove of 
 special value when most needed. Call on the teachers of your ac- 
 quaintance, show them this chapter, and induce them to become 
 Ralstonites ; or secure some friend to call in your place. Then tell 
 the teacher to announce Ralston Day on Monday before the first 
 Tuesday of the month and to ask each pupil to bring two flowers 
 if possible, one to wear and one for the vase on the teacher's table. 
 
 A talk on health should be given to the scholars on the day 
 itself; and the following statements will be of service to the teacher, 
 who may amplify them at will : 
 
 1. The body consists of bones, skin, muscles, nerves, organs, 
 blood and the senses. 
 
 2. Health comes from good food, good water, pure air, exer- 
 cising, keeping clean, and protecting the nerves. 
 
 3. Good food is found in grains, vegetables, meat extracts and 
 fruits. Bad food is found in white bread, fried grease, pastry, cake 
 and confectionery. 
 
 4. While pastry, cake, confectionery and food cooked in 
 fried grease may be taken in small quantities after eating a suffi- 
 cient supply of good food, they do some little injury even then. 
 
 5. Potatoes ; eggs and meat fried in grease ; and doughnuts, 
 fried cakes and similar foods are sure to make the blood bad, the 
 complexion yellow and the stomach weak. 
 
 6. Apples and all ripe fruits may be eaten freely ; but the pre- 
 ferred fruits are apples, pears and grapes, always fully ripe. 
 
 7. Never eat bad food on an empty stomach, especially candy, 
 cake and pastry. 
 
 8. Meat fibrin is of no value to you. The less you eat of it, 
 and the less you eat of ham and pork, the fewer sores you will have. 
 
 9. Tea on an empty stomach is poisonous. 
 
 10. Cofiee makes persons nervous and yellow-looking. 
 
 11. Wines, ciders and liquors inflame the blood ; and, sooner 
 or later, the nose becomes red on the end, and sores form inside. 
 
 12. Every breakfast throughout the year should commence 
 with grains and milk ; the rest of the day will be comfortable. 
 
 13. Meat, if eaten at all, should be in the form of strong soups, 
 broths or extracts. 
 
154 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 14. Headaches and inability to study are caused by eating 
 too much starchy food, white bread, fried cakes, syrups, fried pota- 
 toes, pastry or fancy foods. 
 
 15. Pure water is needed every day. Well water is rarely 
 ever pure. Typhoid fever will be caught by drinking bad water. 
 
 16. Diphtheria is a horrible disease, and many thousands die 
 every year from this one malady. It is in the air, and is an air 
 contagion. 
 
 17. Breathing in through the mouth is the direct cause of 
 catching diphtheria, and of more than twenty other diseases. 
 
 18. Every spell of sickness has its particular cause. Typhoid 
 fever comes from bad water ; diphtheria from inhaling damp air 
 through the mouth ; consumption from inhaling dust in dry air 
 through the mouth ; and so on. 
 
 19. Every man, woman and child should be taught to inhale 
 through the nose. It is hard to do this at first, but there are exer- 
 cises that quickly establish the habit. 
 
 20. It is impossible to catch any air contagion if you breathe 
 in through the nose. Sore throats, colds and lung troubles are ab- 
 solutely impossible. 
 
 21. Catarrh is caused by the habit of inhaling through the 
 mouth. The nose was intended to breathe through ; and it has 
 filters which catch and hold all- impurities and all disease germs. 
 When the nose is not used the mucus becomes thickened, imfiam- 
 mation follows and catarrh is the result. 
 
 22. People think and even say they always inhale through the 
 nose when they do not do so in conversation. In their sentences 
 they unconsciously draw a quick breath through the mouth. 
 
 23. Damp air has diphtheria germs. Dry air has consumptive 
 germs. The great microscopes of the world prove these facts. But 
 dry air has mineral dust also. 
 
 24. If you inhale through the mouth and then scrape a little 
 mucus from the throat and examine it under a microscope, you 
 will find very small particles of mineral dust, looking like broken 
 glass with sharp, cutting edges. These sharp edges cut into the 
 throat and make it sore and raw. Disease germs then get into the 
 blood through the openings or cuts, and disease follows. 
 
 25. Any person can go among contagious diseases and be per- 
 fectly safe, if there is wholesome food in the stomach, and if the air 
 is not inhaled through the mouth. 
 
RALS TON HEAL TH DA Y. 166 
 
 26. The body contains vitality known as human electricity. 
 Dampness is a good conductor and causes a sudden loss of vitality, 
 resulting in severe colds. 
 
 27. Thin-soled shoes, damp feet, standing to talk on the cold 
 sidewalk, or sitting upon stone steps, iron steps, or on the ground, 
 will cause a loss of vitality, shock the nervous system, and develop 
 very heavy colds. 
 
 28. Unswept floors, dusty rooms, and dirt generally are 
 fruitful causes of disease. All dust is alive with germs. 
 
 29. Cleanliness is conducive to health and vitality. 
 
 30. The breath should always be fresh and sweet. 
 
 31. If the teeth are not cleaned several times daily, they 
 collect foul matter, which the microscope shows to be full of bugs 
 or disease germs. 
 
 32. The body should be bathed as often as possible, as open 
 pores are necessary for health. We breathe out the poisons of the 
 blood through the pores ; but dirt clogs them. 
 
 33. Out-door air furnishes all the nerve vitality to the sys- 
 tem. All persons should get out-door air every day ; and the 
 more they are out, the more life and health they will have. 
 
 34. Out-door air, light and sunshine make the rich red cor- 
 puscles of the blood. 
 
 35. Graded and balanced exercises should be practiced a few 
 minutes each day. 
 
 36. An exercise is graded when it suits the condition of the 
 person practicing. 
 
 37. An exercise is balanced when it uses all the sets of mus- 
 cles in the body, one after the other. 
 
 Exercises. — The teacher should devise some graded and 
 balanced exercises for a few minutes on Ralston Day. In the 
 Movement Cure Division of the Book of Complete Membership 
 are special school exercises, fully illustrated (in the seventh 
 edition), and intended for teachers. They are part of the forty 
 dollar course of physical culture in Martyn College, and are placed 
 in the Complete Membership Book, so that practically all of the 
 forty dollars may be saved. Before they can be taught properly 
 and successfully, the laws of physical culture, of hygiene, of 
 physiology and of anatomy should be studied ; and all these are 
 freely stated in the special divison of the Book of Complete 
 Membership. 
 
156 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 PROGRESSIVE RALSTONITES, 
 
 SjPET us then be up and doing, 
 ^^ With a heart for any fate; 
 Still achieving, still pursuing, 
 Learn to labor and to wait. 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 Hope is the banner of health ; progressice people lice usell ; ichen hope dies, the 
 grace ^avDns."—!ShaJteshury. 
 
 OME YEARS AGO, when a few members were practicing 
 the Ralston ideas and were getting well, an irresistible 
 desire to tell others all about the Club and to do them 
 good also, took possession of the more progressive 
 spirits. Objection was made on the ground that the 
 knowledge was obtained at great trouble and expense, 
 and that the offering of it to the public would not only be unfair, 
 but would not be appreciated. The broader minds thought other- 
 wise; " Let Ralston speak for itself, if it is worthy it will spread." 
 Of all the incidents of membership the most notable is an 
 irresistible desire to help others; to speak of the Club to others; 
 to explain its purposes and the benefits of membership. It is prac- 
 tically the only Club that charge: no fees; and even all the books, after 
 the first, may be obtained free by taking the degrees of a Progres- 
 sive Ralstonite. Thousands of members have obtained very ex- 
 pensive books and all the treatments free, in this way ; and the 
 greater number do this without being asked. It comes from an 
 inborn desire to do good to others. 
 
 It is said that every good deed done on earth is recorded in 
 Heaven, where the act bears interest ; not so much for its greatness 
 as for the heart's good intention that prompted it. 
 
 A simple act of kindness, however humble, redounds as glor- 
 iously to the credit of the doer as the dying man's gift of millions. 
 Rich men attempt to make peace with God by large charities; but 
 the sweet fragrance of a little act of kindness rises farther heaven- 
 ward than the smell of purse-bound gold. The smallnesses of life 
 day by day grow into mountains that over-top the piles of wealth, 
 and sweep a larger horizon. 
 
PROGRESSIl^E RALSTONITES. 157 
 
 A Progressive Ralstonite is one who realizes that life is 
 either a pleasant journey up the stream or an idle drift down- 
 ward ; that as the current never stands still, so there can be no 
 stationary existence. Get in a boat on any river and you will 
 learn what life means. A little effort may carry you farther in- 
 land and always toward the uplands ; a relaxation of effort will 
 cause you to drift downward. To be sure, the branch of life's 
 stream is not always of your selecting, and the current may set 
 strongly against you at times; but there is always a calmer spot 
 in the lee of some noble shore. An earnest heart dwells in the 
 special care of Providence. 
 
 The first step in Progressive Ralstonism is the resolve 
 to take the oars in your hands and pull up-stream ; stop drifting; 
 begin an affirmative existence; progress; and the charm and 
 pleasure of true living will be realized. A progressive person is 
 always happy. A stagnant soul is always miserable. The wonder- 
 ful faculties with which you are endowed are best preserved by 
 their continual use. Geology tells us that the earth is progressive ; 
 history tells us that the human race is progressive ; and all crea- 
 tion is moving onward to some sublime destiny. Stop drifting 
 downward, if in fact you are ; we hope you are not. Come with 
 us. Do a little good every day, and when night comes the sweet 
 satisfaction of " something achieved " will rest like a crown of 
 peace upon your brow, and follow you to a dreamless, hallowed 
 sleep. 
 
 Having made up your mind to perform the duties of life, 
 to become a more progressive, and, therefore, a happier and more 
 useful, human being, the next step is to recognize the fact that 
 earthly life and health are identical, having as their common 
 enemy the gaunt figure of disease. Then the first, the greatest, the 
 most imperative duty of all, is the proper regard for health : first, 
 your own health ; second, the health of others. In the perform- 
 ance of this duty you become a Ralstonite, whether you will or 
 not ; for every man or woman who gives the slightest attention to 
 any matter of health is a Ralstonite, as the word indicates. Would 
 you like to do good in the world? Such is the opportunity now 
 offered. It requires no money, no self-denial, and no labor ; noth- 
 ing but quiet loyalty to the great principles of the Club to which 
 you belong, and the ever-present desire to make those principles 
 known to others. We hold that these two elements are sufficient. 
 
158 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 The Duties of a Progressive Ralstonite are prompted 
 solely by a sympathy for humanity strong enough to override in 
 some degree the inherent selfishness of life ; to take up the burden 
 of pleasant duties and perform them quietly, yet efficiently. These 
 duties are only two. They are purely voluntary. It is for you to 
 decide whether they shall be assumed or not. 
 
 First Duty. — An interest in your own health. 
 
 Second Duty. — An interest in the health of others. 
 
 Personal Health is the First Duty, and by this is meant 
 a reasonable care of that blessing which the Creator has bestowed 
 upon the race. Sickness is a physical crime, a defiance of Nature 
 equal to indifierence to the wishes of God who gave health. It is 
 easy to perform this first duty ; for it requires only that you pay 
 some little attention to your health. A minute a day of thought 
 or action will turn your life into a new channel. Many Ralstonites 
 open this book every day of their lives and read a page or two 
 from its great wealth of truths. 
 
 The second duty is equally as solemn. You cannot well 
 say that it is no concern of yours whether other people are sick or 
 in good health; for disease spreads. All contagions are due to 
 somebody's carelessness or ignorance. There are millions of chil- 
 dren in the graves of this country who had a right to grow up and 
 enjoy life, but whose untimely deaths were due to the faults of 
 others ; and millions of men and women have been cut off before 
 the prime of life by lung diseases or other contagions caught from 
 public or private carelessness. You not only have a right to en- 
 courage other persons to take better care of their health, but the 
 general welfare of your community demands that you should do 
 so, and persistently keep at it until a more wholesome sentiment 
 prevails. If public interest is sluggish, then you have an oppor- 
 tunity to test your personal magnetism. The best field for such a 
 test is where men and women are not easily aroused to the nobler 
 things of life. 
 
 There is, however, a grander motive for taking an interest 
 in the health of others ; it is the impulse to tell the good news to 
 everybody. They say that Ralstonites who have received the 
 decided benefits in health that come from the use of this Book of 
 General Membership, can no more cease from carrying this blessed 
 gospel to others than they can cease from breathing ; and there is 
 no enthusiasm in the world equal to Ralston enthusiasm. It is 
 
PROGRESSIVE RALSTONITES. 169 
 
 infectious. It spreads. The sick are made well ; and, seeing scores 
 of invalids in their community, they tell them how to get well 
 without medicine and without cost. This shows that Ralstonites 
 unconsciously bury all selfishness in their desire to help others. 
 There is inspiration in it. They remain actively loyal'to the Club, 
 and nothing can shake their faith in its power. 
 
 Active loyalty consists in allegiance to Nature and her 
 teachings as presented in the books of Ralstonism ; loyalty to the 
 Club, to its noble work, its untiring zeal and steadfast principles. 
 Will you he actively loyal f Think of the revolution that must 
 eventually be wrought in the world if each Ralstonite seeks to 
 spread the influence of this club. It is your club. These doctrines 
 are yours. If you desire that others should know of them, that 
 desire will ripen into an influence; and one by one, like stars 
 beginning to shine at night, your influences will blossom into 
 results, and you will have won recruits for Ralstonism. Think, 
 too, what a moral change will be wrought ; for all 'physiologists agree 
 that ill health causes irritability, morbid nerves, defective moral natures, 
 and nine-tenths of all the sin in the world. The key of moral reform 
 is turned by the hand of Health. 
 
 In communities where Ralstonism has been well intro- 
 duced, the bad physical habits have almost entirely disappeared. 
 The building of a clean stomach and pure blood will destroy, in 
 a natural manner and without efi'ort or resistance, all taste for 
 tobacco, for smoking, or for alcohol; so that these evils are no 
 longer temptations ; thus showing that only vitiated appetites 
 crave them. When cleaner health has been established, the mind 
 becomes more ambitious and mental habits change for the better. 
 Foul and trashy reading gives way to more solid thought and 
 purer books. Success in all the duties of life seems to be invited 
 as though by magic. Even the churches are blessed by the spread 
 of Ralstonism. Clergymen inform us that the tastes of such classes 
 become elevated under the inspiration of good health ; and the 
 increased observance of the Sabbath gives proof that a well- 
 balanced human being, in order to attain perfect health, must 
 recognize the demands of the body, the mind and the soul, with- 
 out detriment to either. There is something strange and fasci- 
 nating in the power which Ralstonism holds over the lives of those 
 who are worthy of the best things of this world. It brings them 
 the immediate blessings of prosperity and happiness. 
 
160 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 A Progressive Ralstonite is one who insists upon aiding 
 others to take more interest in their health, by making Ralstonites 
 of them. Our life-work is to spread Ralstonism and increase the 
 membership of the Club ; but we are powerless to do so except 
 through our members who are benefited in health. Mere adver- 
 tising will not do it. We must give substantial proof in the 
 bettered condition of those who have tested the doctrines we 
 teach. When you are honestl}^ able to do this, and not before, 
 you should become a Progressive Ralstonite, and write the title in 
 abbreviations, P. R., at the end of your name. You should invite 
 others to obtain the same blessings, and thus secure recruits for 
 the cause. 
 
 Degrees are steps of honor, taken as follows : For every 
 person who obtains a copy of this Book of General Membership, 
 through your influence ; or for every such copy that you procure 
 with the intention of finding a member for it, you advance a 
 DEGREE. A Progressive Ralstonite is one who advances not less 
 than two such degrees every year. We do not request any member 
 to do this ; for each member should choose to do so voluntarily or 
 not at all. It is our purpose to impose no duties whatever ; and 
 then we can know that the influence of our members in aiding to 
 spread Ralstonism is purely voluntary, and, therefore, a pleasure. 
 
 But we "will not allow any member to perform even so 
 delightful a task as enlisting recruits for this great cause, unless 
 we are permitted to reciprocate. It is true that many members 
 are unwilling to accept emoluments ; and we have on our books 
 the names of thousands of noble men and women who advance 
 many degrees every month and will not make any claim for recog- 
 nition for so doing; but we manage in some way to reward them. 
 It is our policy to spend every dollar we receive, in encouraging 
 all efforts to increase the membership and influence of this Club ; 
 and we freely acknowledge that power is what we are after, — power 
 to suppress ill-health first, and public evils, second ; power to uplift 
 communities, make every home prosperous, and every government 
 honest. Already our numbers are so great that we exert a quiet but 
 tremendous influence in America. For these reasons we are not 
 slow to reward all loyal Ralstonites for their efforts in this behalf. 
 
 A solid gold medal made out of three twenty-dollar gold- 
 pieces, or sixty dollars in cash, is one of our voluntary tokens to 
 High Degree Ralstonites, as stated in the Combination Book of 
 
PROGRESSIVE RALSTOhllTES. 161 
 
 Complete Membership. But even here, in this volume, we try to 
 reward our General Members. If you will read the final chapter 
 you will see that the first degree book, called Inside Membership, 
 valued at two dollars, and the fifth degree book, called Complete 
 Membership, valued at seven dollars, may be obtained free when 
 five degrees have been advanced. There are two ways of advanc- 
 ing degrees : 
 
 1. By sending out our beautiful Invitations. We allow 
 you one dollar's worth of these free for every degree you advance. 
 These may be given or mailed to your friends, acquaintances, or 
 the public generally. You will write or stamp your Club-number 
 on each Invitation you send out ; and when the same is accepted 
 we always receive the number and credit your account with it. In 
 this way, as many as one hundred degrees have been advanced in 
 three weeks by one member. If you wish us to send you some of 
 these Invitations, kindly state how many. 
 
 2. The second way of advancing degrees is by pur- 
 chasing copies of this Book of General Membership of us, and 
 having a supply on hand to deliver at once to those who seek 
 them. If it is known that you have them ready for immediate 
 delivery, purchasers will come to you rather than send to us ; and 
 you are allowed to charge an additional ten cents per copy for the 
 accommodation. One lady procured a hundred copies of us at 
 one dollar each, and sold them all at an advance of thirty -five 
 cents each, thus making a substantial profit. 
 
 We advance you a degree for every copy of the book that 
 you procure of us, provided you have a club-number, and let us 
 know it at the time ; and provided, also, you intend the copy for 
 another person. Degrees are conferred not for mere sales, but for 
 sales that look to an increase of membership. We are glad to sell 
 books and glad to make money ; and we believe that every dis- 
 coverer, every inventor, every benefactor of mankind should be 
 paid something at least for the good he has accomplished ; but 
 our life-work is to spread Ralstonism, and no sale is encouraged 
 unless it brings a new recruit to the cause. Thus the degree- 
 system is allowed. 
 
 You may advance degrees under one or both of the follow- 
 ing motives : 
 
 1. Either for the honor of being recognized as a High Degree 
 Ralstonite ; 
 
162 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 2. Or for such honor coupled with a substantial recognition 
 from us, in the shape of emoluments. That is, if you advance one 
 degree, you may have free the two-dollar book of Inside Member- 
 ship ; or, if you advance five degrees, you may have free the above 
 book, and also the seven-dollar volume of Complete Membership; 
 or a total value of nine dollars ; under the plan stated in the next 
 chapter. In the latter case, kindly use either Form A or Form B 
 of final chapter. 
 
 To become a Progressive Ralstonite of record, all you 
 need do is to sign the enclosed in this book, and mail us a copy : 
 
 To Ralston Health Club, Washington, D. C. : 
 
 I voluntarily resolve to advance two degrees each year as a Ral- 
 stonite , for the purpose of aiding to spread the membership of the Club. 
 I reserve the privilege of withdrawing this resolution at anytime, if I so 
 choose. If I desire emoluments as I advance degrees I will notify you 
 under the Rules of the final chapter of this book. 
 
 Name and address. 
 
 So long as we have any surplus in our treasury we shall offer 
 you substantial values in the grandest of emoluments ; and we 
 hope that you will accept them, for you deserve to share with 
 others in the rewards of unselfish merit. 
 
 Ralstonism is already a mighty power, and its influence 
 is growing rapidly. A revolution is at hand. The serious thought 
 and appreciation of the benefits and blessings of good health 
 will soon command the situation. The sickly tendencies of the 
 times will change by slight degrees at first ; but surely and per- 
 manently at last. The ill-shaped form, the shrunken lungs, the 
 sallow complexions, must all give way to the onward march of a 
 more symmetrical being, of better nerves, of truer blood and finer 
 physique. The new body is a logical result of thoughtful attention 
 to the natural laws health. Human ambition, directed to the 
 attainment of some noble end, is the great law of earthly existence. 
 Happiness is as necessary to the health of the body as sunshine is 
 to the flower. Duties, lovingly accepted and sweetly performed, 
 make life one endless round of pleasure. 
 
 •* Count that day lost whose low, descending sun 
 Views at thy hand no worthy action done." 
 
163 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 (HEALTH DIVISION.) 
 
 UNIVERSAL FRATERNITY OF RALSTONITES 
 
 m 
 
 Y crown is in my heart, not on my head ; 
 Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, 
 Nor to be seen ; my crown is called content ; 
 A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Come tcith me hand in hand tcith Nature and tcith Ralston, and let us drink deep 
 ofi the fountain of life."— Sha/iesbury. 
 
 'LL PERSONS who give thought to the serious side of 
 life hail with delight such opportunities for doing good 
 to themselves and others as those afforded to Progressive 
 fS^'-^^^Z,^ Ralstonites in the preceding chapter. The two duties 
 ^/S^^ are pleasant and easily performed. But as health sur- 
 mounts the petty restrictions that make existence very 
 narrow ; and, as life itself broadens away to greater fields of use- 
 fulness and pleasure ; there comes the desire to unite with those 
 who are really in earnest in the battle for happiness and pros- 
 perity. Like the memories that cling around the Alma Mater of 
 college life, the love for the Ralston Club 
 grows deeper as the years roll by ; and 
 the pleasantest of recollections find their 
 crystallization in the perpetual bond of 
 fraternity that commences with the sixth 
 degree, known as the 
 
 \J. F=. O. R. 
 
 This is a purely voluntary asso- 
 ciation w^hich you may join or not, as 
 you please; and the membership is not 
 attended by any expense whatever. It is 
 conducted in two ways ; either as a private society whose motto is 
 "advancement and improvement," and whose work is accom- 
 plished through the literature of the order; or in addition thereto, 
 by means of Ralston Public Clubs. Please bear in mind that you 
 may omit the latter means of usefulness, and yet be a full member 
 
164 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 of the U. F. 0. R. by your record on our books, through your 
 Permanent Club-number, which is obtained under Form B of the 
 final chapter. Both sexes are admitted, as explained in the Book 
 of Complete Membership. 
 
 Ralstonism is as free as June air. — Let us always remem- 
 ber this. It has no creed, no sect, no politics. Some one has asked 
 what religious denomination it favored ; and the answer was that 
 good health is not restricted to any one denomination ; all persons 
 may seek it. Another asked what political party it preferred; 
 and the answer was that good health could not possibly limit itself 
 to any one party. In other words, these matters are in no wise 
 related to Ralstonism. God's glorious sunlight floods sky and 
 earth in one boundless stream of generosity intended for great and 
 small, rich and poor, alike. 
 
 Here are some reasons why you should become the 
 founder or member of a Ralston Public Club in your community, 
 and thus join the U. F. O. R. In the first place, human associa- 
 tion is decreed by the Creator, and is necessary for the preserva- 
 tion of the balance between mind and body. Those who exclude 
 themselves become mentally tainted, and often go insane. There 
 are hundreds of societies in existence, mostly secret and for men. 
 They are charitable, beneficial, moral, literary or scientific; all 
 good in motive. The U. F. 0. R. may possess all these advan- 
 tages, and not be secret, nor confined to men. As for motive, the 
 study and care of the health must take precedence of all causes for 
 human association; but Ralstonism includes more than these, in 
 fact more than all other secular organizations combined. It afiects 
 the very essentials for which civic government exists. It means 
 better living, greater prosperity, cleaner communities, pure food, 
 proper exercise, good lungs, symmetry of form, and general culture. 
 This is the old Greek method, training the body as well as the 
 mind; and in the period of her supremacy ancient Greece pro- 
 duced the greatest minds the world ever saw : the grandest poets, 
 philosophers, mathematicians, architects, dramatists, orators, 
 sculptors and painters. 
 
 The advantages of the U. F. O. R. are numerous, as you 
 will see by a brief attempt to organize a Ralston Public Club in 
 your community. Even if you do not care to become the founder 
 of such a society, you may find it pleasant and profitable to attend 
 the meetings where all the privileges and doctrines of Ralstonism 
 
UNiyERSAL FRATERNITY OF RALSTONITES. 166 
 
 may be discussed. There are in this country alone more than one 
 thousand such societies. Still, on the other hand, you may prefer 
 to study the books in your own home, and there find pleasure and 
 instruction in their companionship. 
 
 Success in a financial way comes to any high-degree Ral- 
 stonite who may be in need of such help. This has been proved 
 many times recently. One member, who was poor, found the 
 means of earning several thousand dollars in a single season; 
 and even those who are well-to-do, as business men, or professional 
 persons, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and others, are helped by being 
 high- degree Ralstonites. A mutual feeling is soon established. A 
 man who could not for years get a start in the world, succeeded at 
 last when he became a Progressive Ralstonite. Friends seemed to 
 spring up around him. A lady who studied the movement cure 
 of the first department of Complete Membership, taught it to 
 others, and now has a large bank account. Many ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, young and old, have learned the Ralston system of physi- 
 cal culture as described and illustrated in Complete Membership, 
 and have earned considerable money. School teachers who under- 
 stand this system are in greater demand than those who do not; 
 they benefit their pupils more, and retain their positions longer. 
 To illustrate another use of this fraternal feeling, the case of 
 a store-keeper will prove valuable. He was failing in business, but 
 became a Ralstonite; introduced Ralston goods as stated in the 
 Rules mentioned at the end of the next chapter ; attracted the trade 
 of all the Ralstonites in his community ; and became prosperous. 
 So, also, a member of this club who had been long out of employ- 
 ment, talked of the club to others, and finally brought notice of its 
 benefits to a wealthy man of business who was in ill health. His 
 remarkable recovery led to a very remunerative position for the 
 member who had called his attention to Ralstonism. 
 
 Now all these advantages could not exist, unless, in the 
 first place, there was a powerful inspiration in Ralstonism ; and 
 in the second place, unless a fraternal and mutual feeling pre- 
 vailed, or easily arose, among jour members. If this is true, then 
 that feeling should be fostered, encouraged and protected. Our 
 plan is this : 
 
 First : we hereby invite every earnest Ralstonite to become a 
 member of the U. F. O. R. This membership may be maintained 
 in one or both of two ways : 
 
166 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 1. Either by record, in which case such member's name is 
 engrossed upon our Roll of Honor, and is known to no one but 
 ourselves. 
 
 2. Or by establishing a Ralston Public Club. We wish such 
 a club in every county, town, township, city and ward in America. 
 If you organize such a Public Club ; or join one that is founded by 
 another member with your assistance ; or attend one upon invita- 
 tion not solicited by yourself, you are then a public member of the 
 U. F. 0. R. But if you merely attain the sixth degree and sign the 
 pledge in this chapter, you are a private member of the U. F. 0. R. 
 
 Second: let every member of the U. F. 0. R., whether public 
 or private, be given advantage over others in the same community, 
 all else being equal. This can be easily done, for it has been done 
 many times already. It is possible to give prestige to each person 
 who holds a certificate of membership in the U. F. O. R., so that, 
 whether at home, or in other places, such person may find influence, 
 friendship and co-operation. There are some towns in America 
 where there are so many Ralstonites that no honest memljer could 
 ever be in want ; and there are many instances where others have 
 been helped. An editor espoused the cause of Ralstonism, and his 
 paper doubled its patronage; a clergyman announced that he 
 would preach on Ralstonism, and his church was better attended, 
 until he finally had it crowded every Sunday. There are to-day 
 hundreds of clergymen who speak very openly and plainly of the 
 blessings of Ralstonism. We hope that you, too, will do as much 
 for the good cause. If you do not wish to attend a Public Club in 
 your community, you can certainly encourage others to start one. 
 
 To join the U. F. O. R., you must be in reasonably good 
 health or else you must be improving in health under the influence 
 of this book of General Membership ; otherwise we will not accept you 
 into that organization. The fact that you make application is notice 
 to us that you consider yourself qualified in this respect. 
 
 (Copy the following. Do not cut the leaf.) 
 
 APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION TO THE U. F. O. R. 
 
 To Ralston Health Club, Washington, D. C. 
 
 My club-number is (or I am herewith sending 
 
 page 23 for a club-number). I am already a Ralstonite of the sixth 
 degree (or I am using Form B of the final chapter in order to reach 
 the sixth degree at this time). I have signed the Pledge of the 
 
UNIVERSAL FRATERNITY OF RALSTON ITES. 167 
 
 U. F. O. R., in ink on page 167 of this volume. I therefore apply 
 for the Certificate of Admission into the U. F. O. R., with the higher 
 password ; and also with a Permanent Club-number. 
 
 (Name and full address and any previous club-numbers must 
 be plainly written.) 
 
 Read page 22. Send page 23, unless previously sent ; in which 
 case please report the club-number received by you in return. 
 Use Form B of the final chapter, if you are not already of the 
 sixth degree. 
 
 OATH OF THE U. F. O. R. 
 
 Every organization of any importance binds its members to- 
 gether by an oath of allegiance to its constitution and principles. 
 
 Ralstonism does not require an actual oath, for when members 
 of this Club have once experienced the blessings of improved 
 health, as well as the advantages of the great association, their 
 loyalty becomes steadfast and their enthusiasm never wanes. No 
 true Ralstonite has ever been shaken in faith by the bickerings of 
 shallow people. When one's own life, or that of a loved relative, 
 has been saved by our Club, gratitude becomes life-lasting. You 
 cannot cool the ardor of a real Ralstonite. For this reason we 
 require no oath. A pledge is sufficient, although many prefer to 
 speak of it as the oath of the U. F. O. R. We place as much con- 
 fidence in the word and honor of our members as we would if 
 they had taken an oath. True Ralstonites are always honest. 
 
 PLEDGE OF THE U. F. O. R. 
 
 I solemnly pledge my honor : first, that I will take care of my 
 health in every way that is possible to me in my condition; 
 second, I will never abandon Ralstonism in so far as I have ac- 
 cepted or may come to accept its Principles ; third, in matters per- 
 taining to the Ralston Club I will be guided solely by such of its 
 Principles as I may have accepted ; fourth, I will never be 
 influenced by the conduct or expressions of any human being 
 against such principles ; fifth, I will abide by the Rules of 
 the Ralston Club and not wilfully break any of them ; sixth, 
 I will remain truly loyal to this my Club, and seek to spread its 
 doctrines ; and seventh, I will ever regard Ralstonism as the 
 most important secular concern of my life and the grandest 
 movement inaugurated in the present age. 
 
 (Sign in ink.) 
 
168. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 (LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.) 
 
 BOAED OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 1. Correspondence. 
 
 2. Business, 
 
 3. Degrees. 
 
 4. Emoluments. 
 
 ORRESPONDENCE is as inseparably connected with 
 the Ralston Health Club as the blossom with the sun- 
 shine. No member is obliged to write to us, but it 
 seems that all, or nearly all, let us hear from them. 
 Being voluntary, the letters are the more acceptable. 
 While the reading of them is sometimes a great tax 
 to our reading department, especially when the communications 
 are long, we would not utter a word of complaint, nor do we wish 
 them stopped. It is from the reports, the kind words, the experi- 
 ences of our members that Ralston history is being made. 
 
 BUSINESS. 
 
 a. Orders should be briefly written on separate paper. 
 
 b. You should never omit your club-number. 
 
 c. Complaints should state facts briefly, without comments. 
 
 d. If you are using Invitations, we will state your degree- 
 standing if you send a stamped and directed envelope. 
 
 e. We do not, of course, give medical advice. 
 
 DEGREES. 
 
 There are five degrees in the Ralston Health Club. If you do 
 not care to take degrees you may purchase either of the emolument 
 books outright; otherwise you may obtain them free; or you may 
 advance the degrees for the honor merely, and not claim the 
 emoluments. Read the following pages carefully. 
 Starting point . . General Membership (present volume). 
 1st Degree . . . Inside Membership Book. $2.00 ; or free. 
 5th Degree . . . Complete Membership Book. $7.00 ; or free. 
 All three bound together in one giant volume, known as the 
 
 Combination Book. $9.00 ; or free as hereinafter stated. 
 
BOARD OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 169 
 
 EMOLUMENTS. 
 If you are urging your friends and the people generally to 
 become members of this club — and you cannot help doing so if 
 you have their best interests at heart — you should by all means 
 tell them frankly that the Ralston Health Club is systematized 
 into three courses as follows : 
 
 GENERAL MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 Which is the present 
 
 volume. 
 
 INSIDE MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 Which is a strictly 
 
 secret book. 
 
 COMPLETE MEMBERSHIP. 
 Which book contains the 
 
 natural cures of disease. 
 
 For those who 
 
 wish to 
 KEEP weU. 
 
 For those who 
 
 wish to 
 
 GET well. 
 
 These Three Member- 
 ships constitute 
 the 
 
 RALSTON 
 
 HEALTH 
 
 CLUB. 
 
 Its purpose is to 
 
 "Save Human 
 Life." 
 
 THIS SYSTEMATIZING IS NECESSARY. 
 
 1. The General Membership is for those who are well, or 
 in reasonabh^ good health. But it will cure almost any disease by 
 the following processes : It rebuilds every drop of blood in the 
 body, and thereby makes new and perfect flesh. There is no 
 disease unless the blood is vitiated. Pure blood drives every 
 curable malady out of the system. We have thousands of mem- 
 bers who have cured themselves of organic troubles by this book 
 alone. 
 
 2. The Inside Membership costs two dollars, and is pri- 
 vate. It deals with general ill-health of a confirmed nature, where 
 no specific disease is recognized. Its treatment goes to the root of 
 the evil, and hastens the elimination of all the impure blood of 
 the body, in order to make way for the more rapid development of 
 the pure. Any person seeing the book will at once know why it 
 cannot be made public or issued with General Membership. 
 
 3. The Complete Membership costs seven dollars, and is 
 for those who wish to help others ; or to practice Ralstonism ; as 
 the best and wisest of physicians are now doing. In fact its treat- 
 ments and methods are more successful than the use of drugs. 
 There are men and women, who are not doctors, who are practicing 
 Ralstonism as a profession. The large book of Complete Member- 
 ship is also of great help to invalids who wish the most speedy 
 relief for themselves ; as most of its treatment is specific and direct. 
 
170 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 4. If health is all you seek, you may advance five degrees and 
 obtain Inside and Complete Membership free ; and thus become a 
 complete Ralstonite. In this case you would need only an Outside 
 Club-number ; and Form A of this chapter should be used. 
 
 5. We pay charges for sending General Membership books, 
 and usually Inside Membership ; but not Complete Membership 
 or the Combination Book of Complete Membership, when given 
 away as emoluments ; the cost of these large books being so great 
 that we cannot afford to do so. 
 
 6. Record fees of ten cents a degree are charged to enable us 
 to meet the expenses of keeping and verifying your accounts. But 
 no fees are charged when emoluments are not asked for. 
 
 7. If you use Form B you will add one dollar to the amount 
 charged under Form A, and you will then obtain a Permanent 
 Club-number good for all time ; as well as the nine-dollar volume. 
 Combination Book of Complete Membership, if you have never 
 received Complete Membership. 
 
 8. The possession of the giant volume obtained under Form 
 B, will open the way for you to enter the U. F. 0. R., for which 
 there is no charge of any kind. The certificate and full informa- 
 tion may be found in the Combination Book. 
 
 9. The Combination Book of Complete Membership contains 
 three volumes in one : General Membership, Inside Membership, 
 and Complete Membership ; all strongly bound together in full cloth, 
 of the finest grade, and beautifully stamped in gold and silver. 
 
 10. General Membership is usually bound in leatherette, which 
 is durable and enables you to roll the book. We have copies bound 
 in cloth at two dollars each. Inside Membership is strictly private, 
 and is bound in strong leatherette for rolling. It is never bound in 
 cloth except when in the Combination Book. Complete Member- 
 ship is always richly bound in the best English cloth. Many per- 
 sons prefer the three books separate, for convenience of use. 
 
 11. We do not exchange books. If you order Complete Mem- 
 bership, we will not exchange it for the Combination Book. 
 
 12. Inasmuch as the Combination Book is a strictly private 
 work ; is sold only on a pledge of secrecy ; and is printed as a special 
 limited edition for the accomodation of a few members only ; it is 
 necessary to understand that it is not awarded as an emolument, that 
 is, it is not given away free, except in a single instance ; and that 
 single instance is when Form B of this chapter is used. 
 
BOARD OF GOyERNMENT. 171 
 
 RALSTON REVOLUTIONISTS. 
 
 You may become a Revolutionist, and aid to convert the 
 American people to a new era of living, and a higher plane of 
 substantial happiness. Every recruit you make not only counts 
 you one degree, but becomes a jewelled diamond in the galaxy of 
 honorable achievements. All men and women who know the drift 
 of the times, predict a social, political, and national revolution close 
 at hand. The trend of the age is portentous. We must be strong, of 
 vigorous body, clear brain, iron blood, steady nerve and courageous 
 heart. These virile qualities are found only in conditions of per- 
 fect health ; and this is the foundation of all success in life,, of all 
 enjoyment of home or travel, fame or fortune, education, culture, 
 or extraordinary attainments. The safest course of all is to enter 
 the U. F. O. R. They are the Revolutionists of the coming age, — 
 an epoch soon to begin, as stated in the Combination Book. 
 
 In taking this step you may or may not claim the rewards 
 mentioned in the chapter relating to Progressive Ralstonites ; there- 
 fore one of two courses is open to you : 
 
 a. Either to win recruits to Ralstonism for the pleasure of 
 doing so, for the honor it will bring you to attain a high degree, 
 and for the satisfaction of accomplishing good in the world. 
 
 h. Or to win recruits and take degrees for the sake of doing 
 good to yourself as well as to others. In the latter case, you will 
 permit us to confer upon you certain emoluments of much greater 
 value than you are able now to understand. 
 
 Five recruits are very few ; yet they win for you the Book 
 of Complete Membership. One more recruit, or six altogether, 
 anticipated under Form B, will win the Combination Book in place 
 of the Complete. Yet the Complete alone is considerably larger 
 than the General and Inside books put together. It is a complete 
 physical summary of the human body, and an explanation of the 
 operations of life, presented in a way that everybody may know 
 the purposes of Nature and the necessary methods of recovery. 
 FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Of all the previous editions of the Book of Complete Member- 
 ship, not one was ever illustrated. The seventh and final edition 
 is splendidly presented with four hundred -pictures explaining the 
 exercises and the laws of life. The book has been entirely rev 
 written and wiU prove a surprise to those who have so much 
 admired its predecessors. 
 
172 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 DEPARTMENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOOK OF COMPLETE MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 ALSO ADDITIONS IN THE COMBINATION BOOK. 
 
 First Department. Ralston Movement Cure. 
 
 One hundred illustrations. This system consists of graded 
 movements suited to each vitality. The human body is divided into 
 seventeen parts, and one part after another is given special atten- 
 tion. The effect is most surprising. Take any disease, such as 
 dyspepsia or biliousness, and it would be a most desperate case 
 that could not be cured in a few weeks. There is no expense 
 for apparatus or any matter, in this or any other department. 
 Second Department. Ralston School of Physical Culture. 
 
 This is a home school, designed for those who wish to take a 
 course of scientific exercise without a teacher. 
 Third Department. Public School Exercises. 
 Fourth Department. Nine Great Laws of Nature. 
 
 These are not the Laws of health, but the laws underlying the 
 expulsion of disease. All physicians and specialists, and all treat- 
 ments of any value, are dependent upon these Natural Laws, but 
 medicine uses them in perverted processes. 
 Fifth Department. Ralston Massage. 
 
 This is the complete system of Massage Cures. These are 
 added to the Ralston system, not as a part thereof but because they 
 are valuable and aid to hasten the natural return to health. They 
 are effecting cures ; and practising physicians, as well as the lead- 
 ing hospitals, are adopting both our Massage and our Swedish Cure 
 with the most satisfactory results. We believe that these methods 
 have been kept too much in the control of a few, whereas every 
 home should adopt and practice them regularly; and for that 
 purpose we have given all the rules and the full practice of every 
 kind of massage treatment; and that which has heretofore cost 
 from fifty to five hundred dollars, is now free in your club book. 
 Sixth Department. Man as an Invalid. 
 Seventh Department. Woman as an Invalid. 
 Eighth Department. Colds and their Dangers. 
 
 A classification of diseases which originate in, or are attended by 
 a cold ; a list of the causes of this frequent and dangerous malady ; 
 the natural means of prevention and the cure given by Nature. 
 
BOARD OF GOVERNMENT. 173 
 
 Ninth Department. Catarrh and what it is. 
 
 An examination into the causes, conditions, and cure of the 
 various forms of catarrh. Nearly every person is afflicted more or 
 less with this disorder. It cannot originate of itself. There is a 
 fault somewhere. We do not believe that medicines can cure it; 
 nor have we ever known of permanent relief coming from any 
 source except that which an all-wise Nature has afforded. There 
 is no expense and no apparatus in this or any other Ralston treat- 
 ment; yet we have had no failure in the thousands of cases 
 among Ralstonites where the Natural method has been applied. 
 Tenth Department. The Throat and Lungs. 
 
 Ralstonism deals with the exact origin, the true progress, and 
 the probable chances of cure in every stage of diphtheria, con- 
 sumption, bronchitis, pneumonia and kindred diseases. For every 
 death from diphtheria somebody is to blame. Pneumonia claims 
 thousands of victims every season ; and not one case of death from 
 pneumonia should ever occur. We are equally positive in regard 
 to consumption. 
 Eleventh Department. The Stomach. 
 
 In this important section of the Ralston Complete Member- 
 ship Book, is found the cause, the natural treatment and the cure 
 of every disorder of the stomach. 
 Twelfth Department. Special Organs. 
 
 This includes the liver, heart and kidneys, and aU forms of 
 disorders to which they are subject; the natural treatment and cure. 
 Thirteenth Department. Bones, Muscles and Nerves. 
 Fourteenth Department. The Blood and SJcin. 
 Fifteenth Department. The Brain. 
 
 Man has three brains: the thinking, the acting and the 
 functional ; if the first is out of order, the mind is insane ; the 
 second holds the key to the muscles; the third to respiration, 
 circulation and digestion. To get an idea of the vast scope of 
 this department, we will state that the substance of an entire 
 book is included in this one division of Complete Membership. * 
 Sixteenth Department. Miscellaneous Diseases. 
 
 Herein are included : La Grippe, Constipation, Bowel Troubles, 
 Diabetes, Headaches, Nervousness, Sleeplessness, Irritability, Gen- 
 eral Weakness, Local Weakness, Despondency, Alcoholism, Gout, 
 Hereditary Diseases, Weak Eyes, Failing Eyesight, Apoplectic Ten- 
 dencies, Scalp Diseases, Leanness, Excessive Fat, and Contagions. 
 
174 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 Seventeenth Department. Ralston Doctors. 
 
 This is a summary of all the Ralston, or natural, treatments, 
 presented in such a shape as to be of immediate help to one who 
 wishes to practice as an R. D. (Ralston Doctor). 
 Eighteenth Department. All the Private Diseases of Women. 
 
 There are many of these maladies ; at least eighty per cent. 
 of the fair sex being afflicted with private complaints. No woman 
 would be troubled in this way if she had proper treatment ; and 
 that she can give herself proper treatment we are proving every 
 day. This Department is so comprehensive that it includes all 
 female disorders. 
 Nineteenth Department. All the Private Diseases of Men. 
 
 These include those that come to the innocent and those that 
 come to the guilty. In all cases natural treatment is necessary, 
 even when specific remedies cannot be avoided; and natural 
 treatment often proves better than any other. One of the strong 
 features of this Department is the list of symptoms given ; for the 
 eyes, lids, eyeveins, condition of the eye-fluid, hue of the white- 
 area, lines at the sides of the eyes, markings, colors, lines and 
 hollows underneath, the eating away of the tissue at the upper sides 
 of the nose, the lineaments of the face, and the changing shades 
 of the skin, form a code of signals that tell the presence of a 
 private disorder, and its nature and severity. 
 Twentieth Department. The Revolutionists in Secret Conclave. 
 
 If life is worth living at all, this one department will prove a 
 storehouse full of priceless wealth, wherein is held the great meet- 
 ing of all the Ralstonites of the world. 
 
 Price of the Combination Book, . . $g,oo 
 
 Note. — The last four Departments are found only in the Com- 
 bination Book of Complete Membership. 
 
 How to Use the Forms. — Be careful to read the present 
 chapter in connection with pages 22 and 23 ; then answer in your 
 mind one of the following questions : 
 
 1. Do you wish to remain a General Ralstonite only ? If so, 
 the present book is all you need. It will prove of greater value 
 to you than all the medicines of the world. 
 
 2. Do you wish to become a Complete Ralstonite by using In- 
 vitations ? If so, we will send you some free of charge. 
 
BOARD OF GOVERNMENT. 176 
 
 3. Do you wish to become a Complete Ralstonite at once? If 
 so, use Form A. By doing this you will save time, effort and 
 money; for you will receive five General Membership Books to 
 have on hand as an accommodation to those who wish to buy 
 them. If your friends know that you have them, they will come 
 to you for them. You will also receive Inside Membership and 
 Complete Membership ; or a total of $14.00 for 65.60. Add twenty- 
 seven cents if you wish the latter sent prepaid. 
 
 4. Do you wish the Combination Book, containing aU three 
 volumes bound in one, with four great Departments added to all 
 these ? If so, use Form B. Add forty -five cents if you • wish it 
 sent prepaid. 
 
 FORM A. — TO OTH DEGREE. 
 
 " To Ralston Health Club, Washington, D. C— I wish to ad- 
 vance five degrees and therefore enclose five dollars for five copies 
 of the General Membership book ; also, ten cents record fee for 
 Inside Membership book free ; also, fifty cents record fee for Com- 
 plete Membership book free. My Club-number is . . . (or, I 
 herewith enclose page 23 and stamps for a Club-number). Having 
 applied for the emoluments, I agree to find members for the five 
 General Membership books herein ordered." 
 
 FORM B. — TO 6th degree. 
 
 " To Ralston Health Club, Washington, D. C. — I enclose six 
 dollars for copies of the General Membership book ; also sixty 
 cents record fees. I also wish the Combination Book as an emol- 
 ument, in return for which I agree to find members for the Gen- 
 eral Membership books. I have never received Complete Mem- 
 bership as an emolument. I pledge my honor that I will not 
 permit any person or persons, except my wife, or, except my hus- 
 band lerase to suit case"], to see or know the contents of the Com- 
 bination Book, but will keep the same strictly for my own use." 
 
 Note.— One of the six General Membership Books is contained in the Combination 
 Book. By removing page 23 from the latter and inserting it in your present (Jeneral Mem- 
 bership Book, you will thus have six to sell. 
 
 SHORT FORM B.— to 6th degree. 
 
 " To Ralston Health Club, Washington, D. C— I wish to ad- 
 vance six degrees, merely as a matter of honor. I enclose six 
 dollars for six copies of the General Membership book, for which I 
 agree to find members in order to spread the cause of Ralstonism ; 
 and I forever waive all claim to emoluments." 
 
176 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
 FUTURE OF RALSTONISM. 
 
 Our Club is now your Club. It is not possible to retard its 
 progress. It must be a permanent institution in the home life of 
 the nation, because it is right, it is Nature, and it is helpful. We 
 believe that Ralstonism, since it is becoming universal, is as neces- 
 sary as food, light or water. This movement is the grandest, 
 noblest, and already the most far-reaching power that has origi- 
 nated in the present age. Thousands of the greatest men and 
 women of the world believe in it. Its friends are the true people 
 in every rank and station in life. Every honest heart opens at 
 once to receive its sublime doctrines. Its future means much 
 to the nation and to you. Under its influences, you and your 
 home and your community may be blessed in many ways, and 
 your life made a happier and a nobler one. 
 
 Where our duty ends, yours begins. — To a reasonable 
 mind, arguments on the value of health are unnecessary. The 
 vacant chair in many a household, and the muddy blood or lustre- 
 less eye of abused health, are reminders of wrongs long ago begun, 
 and often reiterated against the remonstrance of judgment and 
 the solicitation of love. 
 
 Ralstonism can never die. — Its principles are Nature's 
 richest laws, framed by an all-wise Creator solely and absolutely 
 for man's happiness. Its plan of existence reaches far forward 
 into a rapidly multiplying growth which no power of man can 
 check. The many great names now enrolled upon its list, and the 
 intense interest they take in spreading its influence and increasing 
 its membership, speak of a Higher Power working in the hearts of 
 men and women to make the world better. 
 
 This book we commit to your charge, and with it the 
 General Membership which it implies. May you and it be insep- 
 arable companions ; may its page.i open up to you new truths, 
 to be conned and learned until their spirit shall become a part of 
 your desires ; may it never leave you in final parting; but on the 
 other hand we hope that you shall be the first to leave it, not in 
 the years that mark the highway of the present generation, but in 
 the hazy distance of Life's long autumn, far, far away from the day 
 your name was first enrolled as a member of 
 
 THE RALSTON HEALTH CLUB. 
 
/Combination |^oofe|ufJJk$ 
 
 ^ Mostly \^OrK on a ^rand ^Cale Prepared for Raktonites, who wish 
 
 ^i^jk»& ^^^'^^ ^■^.^.^^^^ ^^ *^ ''°°^ °^ *^ Ralston Health 
 
 ■9-9.9-9.9-9-9v«.^««CHu (^j^j, feoand in one volume* with 
 
 an elaborate index, embracing all of them in one reference table. 
 
 This giant work, which would cost fifty dollars by private subscription, will be sold for nine 
 
 dollars in cash, or given as an emolument to any Ralstonite who advances six degrees under 
 
 Form B, page 175, and Rule 12, page J70; but not otherwise. [«ec othch sioe] 
 
The only official orgfan of the §ffeat Ralston Qub* A largfe and 
 beaiitifully illustrated Magfazine^ intended to inspire Ralstonites to better use 
 and appreciate the blessin§:s of Ralstonism, *'A flood of sunshine poured 
 directly out of Nature's Heaven/* 
 
 A FIRST-CLASS MAGAZINE MEANS MUCH FOR RALSTONISM 
 
 We cannot afford to have our official organ a cheap-looking, thin, second-class 
 affair. It must be magnificent enough to impress the public with the importance of 
 Ralstonism. Published in epochs. The first now ready. Price for No. 1, only 
 30 cents. Four copies of the same number, $1.00. No samples free. No agents. 
 No discounts. For $1.00 we will send ''MODEL MEALS" and two copies of 
 MAGAZINE — First Epoch. The Magazine will make recruits. 
 
 lec tdrers ^'> F ptertgipers 
 
 THE ROSTRUM 
 
 Many members of our club desire to be- 
 come lecturers on Ralstonism, or on some 
 of the various phases of the subject* Others 
 desire to study oratory in order to become 
 statesmen. Others believe that much sun- 
 shine and cheerfulness in life may be 
 adduced from the pleasure of entertain- 
 ments artistically given. For these reasons 
 
 the study of expression, of speakingf, enter- 
 
 tainingf, instructing and lecturing may be 
 
 regarded as a valuable accomplishment; 
 
 and it is certainly a profitable one in some 
 
 cases; for ladies and gentlemen have received 
 
 as high as one hundred dollars a night in 
 
 such profession, while the ablest lecturers 
 
 have received from five hundred to one 
 
 thousand dollars a night. If you are inter- 
 ested in the subject of attending college for 
 
 such training, kindly address, 
 
 THE ENTERTAINMENT 
 
 ^^ALSTO/^ CLUB, COLLEGE DEPA-RTME/^T 
 
 1223 
 
 Street, lifislttngton, 30* Ou. 
 
 \< 
 
 L-r-4 \ 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 fmm mm.m mmm 
 
 LD 21-100m-12,'4L