CANCER IN THE IRISH FREE STATE



The “father” of medicine, Hippocrates (460 B.C.) believed that the art of healing sickness was only the assistance by natural means of the natural forces of repair: and whilst he was familiar with nearly three hundred drugs, he pointed out in his writings that they were only to be employed where they could assist nature in its efforts to cure. His excellent teaching on diet, sun, air and waters and the secondary place of drugs was soon forgotten. When Galen appeared six centuries later, he found it easy to establish the principle that drugs were of paramount importance in treating disease and that they should be used freely and in large doses to stamp out symptoms.

Medicine never got over that fatal swerve. Down throughout the ages diseases were fought with poisonous drugs, potions, elixirs, washes, salves, etc., and the trade of the apothecary grew up at the demand of both doctor and patient for a wider range of chemicals and more elaborate prescriptions. In recent times the advance of science and the discovery of anaesthetics have made possible new techniques, such as mutilating, inoculating, operating, burning and electricity — all based on the same principle of suppressing the disease by relieving certain symptoms without troubling to find out their cause.

To-day despite the high degree of specialized treatment, the rise of higher chemistry, bacteriology and endocrinology, the thousands of laboratory workers sweating in pouring out chemicals, sera and antitoxins, and the din of scientific palavering, the result remains that not a single cure has been found for a single disease, not even for the common cold. On the other hand the average level of health was never lower nor the tide of chronic disease higher.

If orthodox medicine, however, remained a negative practice, the position would not be so bad. On the contrary its activities against disease are doing incalculable mischief which is all the more deadly as it is not apparent to the causal observer. The search for “cures” has armed its devotes with a dangerous array of drugs whose powers simulate a cure. Such substances as arsenic, digitalis, salicylic acid, insulin, bromide, quinine, which are lauded as triumphs of their researches, are prescribed universally and for prolonged periods for certain maladies.

Arsenic is quite definitely a cancer producing element, digitalis and salicylic acid degenerate the heart muscle, insulin and bromide cause severe nerve troubles and often insanity, quinine leads to anaemia, ear disease and disorders of hearing and vision. The lesser therapeutic substances, viz. iodine, strychnine, iron, cascara, bismuth, senega, etc., and the countless injections for disease conditions, are dangerous and irritating to the tissues.

The subsequent effect of these drugs to the human body is so far removed in nature and in time that the connection is never perceived. Major Mackenzie, a distinguished investigator of this end of the question, however, has offered to produce, before an impartial tribunal, evidence to show that all drugs taken in orthodox prescriptions tend indirectly to disturb cell metabolism and are factors in the onset of cancerous developments. This being the position the money intended for medical research in the Irish Free State will not only be spent uselessly, but disastrously, and may lead to an extra amount of cancer amongst the community.

It might be presumed from this indictment of drugs and the startling possibility that their use is responsible for a portion of the cancer problem that they are a menace to humanity. On the contrary, these substances, when used properly, are of inestimable good. Wise physicians have always obtained good results with them, especially when used fresh from the bosom of Nature with their vital chemistry undebauched in the laboratory crucible.

Their methods, however, were always empirical, and it was not until Hahnemann, the greatest physician and chemist of the eighteenth century, discovered and proved “the principle of similars” that homoeotherapy, the science of the true therapeutic use of drugs was founded.

The principle is based on the fact that drugs which produce certain toxic symptoms in large doses tend to cure similar symptoms arising from disease when given in small doses. The smaller the dose that is given, the better the remedy works; and this is perhaps a valuable provision of Nature whereby the poison action in herbs and minerals is eliminated and the dynamic principle can be used safely to help sick people to health.

Hahnemann and his small band of followers were defamed and persecuted by their colleagues as the vast and lucrative system of complicated drugging, bleeding, lancing and cauterising was in danger of being swept away. The hatred of the apothecary was added. Wherefore a vital scientific discovery and the new practice of homoeopathic medicine to the immeasurable loss of humanity was smothered up and is only now receiving a belated recognition.

The encouragement of orthodox medicine in our time to produce a cancer cure has cost a fabulous sum of money, and has put a heavy premium on oafishness. Homoeopathy, of course, cannot produce one as its principles include the idea of the unity of the body and the unity of disease, and its remedies are designed to stimulate the life force to deal with symptoms and disease tendencies, and so has no “species”. We are forced, therefore, to fall back on the nature therapy of Hippocrates, assisted by drugs used homoeopathically in order to treat this malady with any degree of success.

The Irish Medical Association in their proposals for research in cancer ignore the question of its prevention, have no use for nature therapy, and are as obstinate as they are ignorant regarding Homoeopathy. It does not matter that natural living has cured numerous cases of the disease, or that homoeopathic literature is rich in cures caused and accelerated by careful medicinal treatment, and that this is most remarkable as most victims turn to Homoeopathy only when they are in an advanced stage and have been given up by the surgeon.

There are nearly thirty cures recorded in Dr. Burfords booklet, The Problem of Cancer, which were effected by his colleagues. He himself has numerous cancer cures to his credit. Homoeopathic medicine is, of course, more troublesome to practise, as each patient must be carefully examined and given individual treatment which the members of the orthodox profession are unwilling and unable to do.

With the condemnation of the present-day treatment of cancer and of the folly of searching for a cure, it will be expected that some observations on its proper treatment should be made. At the outset, let it be made clear that the disease, when treated correctly and at a reasonably early stage can be cured, and the tumour will disappear or become benign; but, where it is well advanced and involving important organs or where other degenerative conditions like tuberculosis or kidney disease co- exist, there is not a great deal of hope of life.

The outlook is black also for those unfortunates who have undergone the severe shock of an operation and have had an immediate recurrence or for those in whom perchance ray treatment has driven the disease over the body. Such end cases of degeneration might be considered as outside the domain of legitimate therapeutics, and philosophically speaking, they would be better dead.

Whether the surgeon will intervene to relieve pressure symptoms or perform gastro-enterostomy, colostomy, etc., and give a few extra weeks of suffering is a problem in ethics and need not concern us. Fortunately the majority of growths become apparent fairly early and a certain percentage of the remainder will betray their presence to anyone who is intelligent and observer.

Persistent indigestion, severe constipation, blood in stools or urine, menopause bleeding, intermittent pain anywhere, suspicious swellings, failing health with loss of weight — any of these symptoms in a middle aged person must always be looked into immediately.

The first and most necessary step in the treatment of the disease is the use of suggestion. Naturally this is better done for the victim by the physician; and it will be his duty to impress on the patient that the condition is by no means incurable, but rather that the prospects of cure are bright. If the opposite impression gains ground or it is indicated to the person that he will be dead in a certain number of months, as is often done by orthodox “healers”, it is very doubtful if further treatment will be of value.

Many doctors have been of immense benefit to their patients by being able to implant the idea of health in their minds. One need not be a Mesmer or a Coue to light up hope in the most hopeless and occasionally to witness a sudden and unaccountable return to health.

A strict biological regimen of living must be instituted right away. In this connection particular attention should be paid to the bowels as nearly all cancer can be traced back ultimately to constipation following wrong nutrition. From the period at which the growth is discovered natural bowel movements, three times a day, are essential, and if they do not occur through the adoption of a laxative antitoxic diet, use should be made of paraffin oil or agar-agar.

Peter O Connell