To continue under the above heading, among other disabilities I doubtless may have inherited, was the fact that from birth I had been a bundle of nerves, and this trouble did not improve as I grew older, which proved to be more than a small handicap, it did not fit in with my mothers business abilities or her earnest endeavours to make the world a better place to live in. Further, although I was more or less earning my living with my pen I could not hold a pen in my hand without feeling and seeing it tremble.
About that time also I was refused by three different Insurance Companies. The “Doctors informing me that I had strained the main artery of my heart”, and as I new nothing of having done anything to cause such a condition, I was informed that doubtless it was done at birth. About the same time, about fifty years ago, I was told by a friend that I was suffering from indigestion, which I strongly disputed.
Having given me reasons for his belief, among others being that I was suffering from indigestion brought about through the tea I drank, he finished up by saying, there is not reason to believe what I say, but try it by giving up tea for a fortnight and your handshaking trouble will have disappeared.
I followed his advice for fourteen days only, but the improvement my friend indicated would result, was fully attained. I still had no wish to give up tea drinking permanently and accordingly played with it for a few days which resulted in my not being able to deceive myself any longer that tea was other than a poison for me. I gave up its use entirely and shortly after I gave up coffee in like manner and for the same reason.
They were prohibited things placed with alcohol, the most stimulating of liquids, and beef and mutton with other flesh foods, the most stimulating of solids, with the result that I soon ceased to know that I had a heart,m not even when I ran upstairs, and I was accepted as a first-class life by three different Insurance Companies, knowing that I had previously been refused by each. I have since lived to draw the insurance money from one and all.
This convinced me, if there was any necessity, that if one works with Nature and obeys her laws, we inherit little good or bad, beyond tendencies, from our forebears and such tendencies are under our control, to say the least, should be.
In placing these arguments before many people who might greatly benefit by putting them into practice, to provide excuses they trot out all kids of arguments, in fact, we all like to find some excuse for the unwise things we do, If it is a cold they have and a short fast is recommended, they tell us that we “should feed a cold and starve a fever”. when it is pointed out that this is not the correct rendering of the instruction, the right reading being, “If you feed a cold, you will have to starve a fever”. before very long.
When suffering from catarrh of the stomach and they are told to substitute for the many foods they have been eating, Nuto Cream Soup and Granarg Biscuits only, eaten dry with the soup, not in it, until their trouble ceases, they express doubts and, when told “that these have never known to fail”, reply, “Yes, but what is one mans meat is another mans poison,” The answer being, “Yes, but what has been taken for one mans meat has often, sooner or later, proved to be the same mans poison.
Another thing the writer has learnt is that one can make great mistakes in eating and drinking, by working against Nature, quite apart from any selfish reason or the “I like it” consideration. Although the writer has lived on two meals a day for many years, and done all his drinking between meals, he has unwisely for many years done a lot of sampling between meals, in the perfecting of the hundreds of new foods introduced as substitutes for, and to take the place of, fish, fowl and dairy produce in every presentable form.
Although doubtless the extent of such sampling in any one day would not exceed in weight more than one ounce, and often not half than he overlooked that fact that all such many samples of food had to be dealt with by ones digestive organs exactly the same as a meal had to be dealt with. It would appear, however, to be such a small matter that it was not worth consideration. It was, however, keeping ones digestive organs always at work, never resting, and so contrary to Natures requirements, with the result after twenty-five years the reckoning day came, when a pain immediately followed every sample taken.
This also had a tendency to act and re-act on the nervous system, while a meal could be eaten without experiencing any such discomfort. The cause of the trouble having been made quite clear, the remedy was equally clear, do no sampling until immediately prior to meal times. The lesson learnt, however, was that the punishment for an unwise habit persisted in for twenty- five, cannot be paid for in a day.
Henry followed in his father's footsteps, obtaining his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Durham in 1891. At the age of 27 he arrived in Melbourne in April 1894 aboard the Port Albert. He was registered as a medical practitioner in Victoria on 4 May 1894.
It appears that Dr Cook already believed in homœopathy, possibly because of his father's influence, as in 1895 Dr Cook took the position of Resident Surgeon of the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital . (This position was previously held by Dr James Cook, unrelated, who resigned in March 1895). He was listed in the 1896 & 1897 editions of the Melbourne Post Office Directory as being Resident Medical Officer at the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital, but not in the 1898 edition.
In 1901 he moved to Sale in Eastern Victoria, where he ran a practice in York Street. By 1909 his practice was at Wyndham Street, Shepparton.
By 1919 he had moved to 2 Studley Park Road, Kew, where he died on 7 May, 1923.