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Cornell University Library 
 RA 776.H64 
 
 Humaniculture, 
 
 3 1924 003 704 867 
 
HUMANICULTURE 
 
HUMANICULTURE 
 
 BY 
 
 HUBERT HIGGINS 
 
 M. A ., Cantab) M. R. C. S. y England, L. R. C. P. t London^ 
 
 Demonstrator of Anatomy at tke University of 
 
 Cambridge, England, and Assistant 
 
 Surgeon to Addenbrooke Hospital ', 
 
 Cambridge^ England 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, zgo6, 
 By Frederick A. Stokes Company 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER FAGB 
 
 I. Introductory i 
 
 PART ONE 
 II. Introduction and History of Fletcher- 
 ism 25 
 
 III. Mastication and Insalivation ... 51 
 
 IV. Taste and Appetite 69 
 
 V. Changes Produced by Poltophagy . 84 
 
 VI. Directions for the Practice of Polto- 
 phagy 98 
 
 VII. The Principles of Fletcherism . . no 
 
 PART TWO 
 VIII. A Brief History of the Origin of 
 
 Medical Doctrines 126 
 
 IX. The ApparatusoftheMedical Sciences 147 
 
 X. Modern Medical Doctrines . . . 168 
 
 PART THREE 
 
 XI. Private Humaniculture 199 
 
 XII. Humaniculture and the State . . 214 
 
 XIII. Conclusion 236 
 
 Index 249 
 
HUMANICULTURE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 There are few civilised communities that 
 are not seriously and earnestly concern- 
 ing themselves with the causes of the 
 terrible phenomena of degeneration that 
 are so prominent a feature of modern 
 city populations. In an undefined and 
 vague way the old illogical reasonings no 
 longer suffice to quiet our consciences; 
 less superficial causes and more effective 
 remedies are being eagerly sought for, not 
 only by philanthropists, but by politicians 
 and administrators. 
 
 The explanations of such phenomena 
 can be said to divide themselves into two 
 opposite points of view : the superstitious, 
 metaphysical, pseudo-scientific, passive, or 
 pessimistic school ; and the active, pro- 
 gressive, scientific, or optimistic school. 
 
2 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 The pessimistic point of view is as 
 old as the history of the world. It has 
 a significant expression in the words at- 
 tributed to Buddha : " From the soles 
 of the feet to the head, he saw that the 
 body was born in impurity, proceeded 
 from impurity, and was always turning 
 to impurity. Who is the wise man who 
 having understood this does not look on 
 his body as an enemy ? " This uncom- 
 promising and awful conception of human 
 nature, born of the despair of Oriental 
 passivity and despotism, has had in its 
 varied expressions only too real an influ- 
 ence, not only on thought, but on action 
 and the general conditions of life. Lecky, 
 in his " History of European Morals," gives 
 a striking picture of its influence : " The 
 conviction that human nature was essen- 
 tially corrupt led to a struggle against it ; 
 all pleasures were forbidden ; even the 
 most innocent were looked on as vicious. 
 What a complete contrast to the calm and 
 joyous conception that characterised Greek 
 philosophy, in which there was no idea of 
 
INTRODUCTORY 3 
 
 a struggle with the supposed corruption 
 and imperfection of man. This dual 
 theory of man's nature became so extreme 
 that its proselytes, so concerned for the 
 salvation of their souls, descended, from 
 the physical point of view, to the level of 
 savage beasts. Hermits lived in animals' 
 caverns. They gave up clothes and wan- 
 dered about naked, covered with long un- 
 kempt hair. In Mesopotamia and in a 
 part of Syria, a sect was formed ; they had 
 no houses, and ate neither bread nor vege- 
 tables, but wandered in the mountains and 
 nourished themselves on herbs. Cleanli- 
 ness was looked on as a sign of corruption 
 of the soul ; among the most esteemed 
 saints were those who gave no care to 
 their bodies." These views have had 
 many new dresses. Their latest scientific 
 expression may be said to be found in 
 Professor MetchnikorFs book " Human 
 Nature," in many kindred writings, and 
 in the influence they exert on modern 
 thought and action, especially on questions 
 of crime, degeneration, and pauperism. 
 
4 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 The actions of the pessimistic school of 
 thought can be said to be guided more by 
 speculation than by induction or measure- 
 ment. The horrors practised under the 
 lex talionis, parental, theocratic, and po- 
 litical autocracy and tyranny, the repres- 
 sive and cramping educational systems of 
 Europe, all derive their philosophical sup- 
 port from some variant or other of the 
 dual theory of man's nature ; in other 
 words, of its essential evil. 
 
 The opposing school of thought is 
 concerned with research and experiment, 
 under widely different auspices, which, at 
 any rate, have the common characteristic 
 of "doing things," rather than merely 
 "thinking things." The late Dr. Bar- 
 nardo of London has gone far to disprove 
 the inevitableness of the transmission of 
 criminal and thriftless characteristics from 
 parents to offspring, and also Dr. Kellogg 
 of Battle Creek, Michigan, has been suc- 
 cessful in this work. Mr. Z. R. Brock- 
 way of Elmira, New York, showed that 
 no less than ninety per cent of the. crimi- 
 
INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 nals treated by his regenerative methods 
 could be restored to society as useful citi- 
 zens. The Elmira demonstration was be- 
 gun, curiously enough, in 1876, in the 
 same year that Professor Lombroso wrote 
 " L' Uomo Delinquente," and startled the 
 world with his theories of hereditary crime 
 and atavism. The work done in America 
 has gone far to disprove the current the- 
 ories of heredity. Professor Lombroso 
 created the science of criminology; Mr. 
 Brockway, its therapeutics. Thus both 
 have rendered inestimable service to hu- 
 manity. General Booth has regenerated 
 many paupers and criminals in three con- 
 tinents by Salvation Army methods, and 
 has shown the way for governments to fol- 
 low in his footsteps. The Church Army 
 of Great Britain has also done good re- 
 generation work. These models are being 
 studied by governmental boards with the 
 idea of reforming degenerates on practical 
 scientific lines. 
 
 The ideals that directed the noble ac- 
 complishment of Greek civilisation showed 
 
6 HUMANICULtURE 
 
 triumphantly a glorious example of na- 
 tional humaniculture, which has only to be 
 imitated and excelled by the aid of the 
 greater resources of modern civilisation 
 and science. These examples, together 
 with the private specialised experiments 
 of Messrs. Patterson, Kellogg, Cadbury, 
 Lever, Heinze, Nelson, Van Marken, 
 and many others, illustrate the successful 
 achievement which has always rewarded 
 efforts that aimed at the amelioration or 
 the prevention of human disorganisation. 
 
 This book is written with the object of 
 showing that there are good grounds for the 
 belief that a more thorough understand- 
 ing and a more complete use of the human 
 aptitudes provide the essential foundation 
 for scientific humaniculture. To illustrate 
 a point of view from which human nature 
 may be profitably considered, let us take 
 the case of a new-born child. An infant 
 is born with three sets of qualities : 
 
 (i) Those physical and mental attri- 
 butes that are common to all human 
 beings. The excellence of such a child 
 
INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 will depend on whether it possesses these 
 essential common attributes in the fullest 
 possible degree. 
 
 (2) Characteristics that it possesses in 
 common with certain groups of people, 
 such as races and families. 
 
 (3) Qualities that distinguish the indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 The child is exposed throughout life 
 to two sets of conditions : 
 
 ( 1 ) Adverse conditions, that contribute 
 in a greater or less degree to deterioration 
 and degeneration. Certain of these condi- 
 tions are inevitable, as in the case of 
 climate; the vast majority, however, are 
 evitable. 
 
 (2) Progressive conditions, that con- 
 tribute to the most perfect development 
 of the child. 
 
 It will be obvious that the more favour- 
 able and the fewer adverse conditions there 
 are to which the child is exposed, the higher 
 will be the degree of its development to- 
 wards becoming a perfect human being. 
 
 It is only too clear that not only have 
 
8 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 we not yet thoroughly realised and studied 
 the fundamental aptitudes and characteris- 
 tics of human beings, but we have, in the 
 confusion of evidence, contracted curiously 
 diverse and even opposite opinions of the 
 nature and value of the conditions to 
 which children and adolescents are acci- 
 dentally or deliberately exposed. It will 
 be shown, inter alia, in the following chap- 
 ters that Mr. Horace Fletcher's discovery 
 of the text-book error relative to the op- 
 timum nitrogen supply for active, healthy 
 manhood, and its confirmation by Pro- 
 fessor Chittenden, 1 have proved our former 
 views on such subjects to be incomplete, 
 unsound, and unscientific. Further re- 
 search should bring out yet more facts 
 which will enable the sane influence of 
 positive science to replace the present hap- 
 hazard and ineffective points of view, which 
 are so largely responsible for the deplor- 
 able degenerated products of civilisation. 
 
 1 Physiological Economy in Nutrition. Russell H. 
 Chittenden. The Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York; 
 William Heinemann, London. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 9 
 
 In order to illustrate the nature of the 
 deficiencies of human equipment in some 
 respects, it is profitable to compare the 
 condition of the young of certain of the 
 wild animals with those of civilised human 
 beings. In those admirable books, "Wild 
 Animals I have Known," and "The Lives 
 of the Hunted," Thompson-Seton has 
 given a remarkable account of some of 
 the conditions under which young animals 
 in the wild or native state are reared. 
 They receive from their parents the most 
 careful instruction by precept and example 
 in (1) the food they should eat, and how 
 to obtain it; (2) methods that enable them 
 to escape from their enemies. The im- 
 portance of this instruction is such that if 
 they fail to carry it out thoroughly they 
 die, either from want of food or from 
 inability to escape their enemies. In the 
 case of the young of human beings, the 
 penalties of exposure to avoidable adverse 
 conditions is by no means certain death, 
 as in the case of the wild animals, but 
 frequently degeneration and inefficiency. 
 
10 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 Few people will be found to deny that, 
 provided a child started fair, and was in- 
 structed as carefully and as thoroughly 
 as the young of some of the wild animals 
 are known to be, it would tend to develop 
 into a more perfect adult than is now the 
 average result. 
 
 It has been necessary to do something 
 towards giving an answer to that very 
 difficult and important question, What is 
 health ? For convenience of description 
 the term " optimum health " has been used 
 in a somewhat arbitrary sense to express 
 the highest possible degree of physical 
 efficiency that an individual can attain. 
 It will be obvious that when there are 
 hereditary deficiencies or injuries from 
 accident or disease, there will be a lower 
 degree of optimum health than in the 
 case of more fortunate individuals. In 
 defining health, to say that it is a perfect 
 performance of all the functions of all the 
 organs, is only to ask the same question 
 in another way, as we do not know all the 
 functions of all the organs. If one says 
 
INTRODUCTORY II 
 
 again that health is attained and main- 
 tained by obeying the laws of nature, it 
 is merely putting another unsolved ques- 
 tion : What are the laws of nature ? In 
 the course of wide reading the best descrip- 
 tion of optimum health was found in one 
 of the sacred writings of the East, in the 
 13th verse of the second Adhyaya : " The 
 first results of Yoga they call lightness, 
 healthiness, peace, a good complexion, 
 beauty and grace, profuse fragrance, a 
 melodious voice, and light excretions." 
 
 One of the essentials of humaniculture 
 is to attain and maintain optimum health ; 
 when deviations occur, they can be dealt 
 with by two methods, which can be ex- 
 pressed diagrammatically. 
 
 '~~V> 
 
 A. Line of the optimum health. 1, i, j, Illnesses (acute deviations 
 
 B. Line of actual, average health and alleviations). 
 
 (chronic deviation). 2. Measurement of the deviation 
 
 C. Line of death. from the optimum. 
 
 3. Line of regeneration. 
 
12 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 The distance at any time between the 
 line of average life B and that of optimum 
 health A can be called Deviation from the 
 Optimum. There is on the " B " line the 
 continual and progressive decline, assisted 
 by the acute deviations caused by illnesses. 
 
 When the aim is merely to restore the 
 individual to the level of chronic decline 
 from the depth of an acute deviation due 
 to illness, the process is called Allevi- 
 ation ; when it is attempted to reach and 
 maintain optimum health, the process is 
 called Regeneration. 
 
 ( i ) Scientific Humaniculture. This plan 
 should have its basis in the positive 
 knowledge of human qualities and apti- 
 tudes. It should then concern itself with 
 the nature and effects of the adverse 
 conditions to life, and their avoidance. 
 Finally, it should aim to discover and 
 make the fullest possible use of the most 
 favourable means of a progressive and 
 harmonious development. This science 
 should begin its operations even before 
 birth, and it should cease only at death. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 13 
 
 Its aim would be to cultivate life not 
 merely for the sake of living, but for the 
 most efficient exercise and the highest de- 
 velopment of all the human attributes. It 
 is as boundless as the perfectibility of the 
 human race. By pursuit of such methods 
 as these the Greeks produced more great 
 and learned men, more nearly-perfect hu- 
 man beings, than any other race has ever 
 done, and this in spite of not possessing 
 many of the advantages of modern civ- 
 ilisation, such as the present powerful and 
 speedy means of locomotion, the almost 
 instantaneous transmission of ideas, and 
 the consequent extended opportunities of 
 co-operative social progress. In these 
 days of improved facilities, if concerted 
 and co-operative humaniculture as prac- 
 tised by the ancient Greeks were tried, it 
 would proceed at lightning speed com- 
 pared with what was accomplished even 
 in the Golden Period of Greece. We 
 have more knowledge, more trained ob- 
 servers, and far greater opportunities ; yet 
 at the present day it is easy to show that 
 
14 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 there is little or no attempt to organise 
 humaniculture on a scientific basis. 
 
 (2) Regeneration. This process consists 
 in the methods of restoring and maintain- 
 ing optimum health. It is obvious that 
 complete regeneration cannot be carried 
 out till we not only understand man's apti- 
 tudes, but have experience in their use and 
 development. Since there is neither scien- 
 tific cognisance nor accurate measurement 
 of health, regeneration under present con- 
 ditions is most difficult of realisation. 
 
 (3) Alleviation. The medical sciences 
 owe their development mainly to the 
 necessity for the alleviation of disease. 
 The constant chronic deviation from op- 
 timum health, and the acute and more 
 temporary deviations due to illnesses, re- 
 sult from the concurrence of factors that 
 are never repeated in two individuals, or 
 in the same individual at different times. 
 This is because the chronic deviation is 
 the result of environments that are con- 
 tinually changing, and hence must differ 
 in each case. Consequently the resulting 
 
INTRODUCTORY 15 
 
 reactions or pathological changes must 
 always differ in character or in degree. 
 In the case of individuals who have not 
 subjected themselves to the more similar 
 conditions of a scientific adaptation to the 
 common environment, there is necessarily 
 an almost infinite possibility of variation. 
 This view would account for the great 
 variations, not only in the number of dis- 
 eases, but in the differences found in cases 
 with similar diseases ; it may be said that 
 no one case resembles another. It would 
 not be difficult to show that if sufficiently 
 similar individuals were exposed to the 
 same unfavourable factors, the same illness 
 would invariably be produced. The way 
 in which the medical profession has suc- 
 cessfully dealt with the infinitely variable 
 pathological conditions which constantly- 
 changing environment has produced is one 
 of the greatest triumphs of the human 
 intellect. 
 
 Not so long ago disease was a myste- 
 rious, vague something-or-other. It was 
 considered to be either a punishment for 
 
1 6 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 sin, or entirely the result of heredity. 
 At any rate, its origin and progress were 
 thought to be inevitable. Gradually, as 
 the principles of causation have become 
 defined, it is seen that disease is a definite, 
 positive result of the aggregation of certain 
 evitable causes. The whole of modern 
 effort is now definitely directed to the in- 
 vestigation of these formerly-mysterious 
 causes. Bacteriology has accounted for a 
 number of the most dangerous and sud- 
 den human inflictions. At present there 
 seem to be indications that the root-evil, 
 or, more accurately, that the growth of 
 the trunk of the tree of diseases, is due to 
 the unscientific adaptation of man to his 
 environment, probably during the whole 
 of his life. It is demonstrated that the 
 poisonous products of the growth of 
 micro-organisms, in their reactions on the 
 tissues, cause diseases varying in intensity 
 with the physical condition, or the power 
 of the defensive apparatus of the body. 
 This power of resistance depends on the 
 degree of the deviation from the opti- 
 
INTRODUCTORY \"J 
 
 mum of health found in the individual. 
 Disease can be said to owe its symptoms 
 to the resultant of the best the body can 
 do to prevent death, or, in other words, to 
 diminish the effects of harmful environ- 
 ment. 1 During these conditions of devia- 
 
 1 "The prevailing idea of disease is of a something 
 that is woful and malignant, evil in origin, evil in intent, 
 evil in effect. The method of its entering into the lives 
 of men would seem to belong to the time 
 
 * Of man's first disobedience and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
 Brought death into the world, and all our woe. 1 
 
 " The popular view claims that disease is a calamity, 
 that its end is destruction, and that it is purposeless except 
 in the direction of doing harm. Popular terms bear testi- 
 mony to the prevailing of this belief. Man is said to be 
 struck down by disease as by an avenging angel, it seizes 
 upon him as does a roaring lion, it consumes him as does 
 a fire. The attitude of the medical man towards disease 
 is that of an opponent to deadly influences. He has to 
 combat an enemy to mankind whose every movement is 
 dark and malicious. There is no symptom of disease 
 that is not believed to be noxious, and as such must be 
 stamped out with relentless determination. If the patient 
 be sick, the sickness must be stayed; if he cough, the 
 cough must cease ; if he fail to take food, he must be 
 made to eat. And why ? Because these are manifesta- 
 tions of disease, and are therefore of ill intent and need 
 to be banished. 
 
 "I shall hope to show — so far, at least, as the examples 
 2 
 
1 8 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 tion from the optimum, life is inefficient 
 in varying degrees, and performance is 
 not equal to intentions. The ruling 
 power, the brain, is undermined, and it 
 then interferes with the healthy adapta- 
 tions of the body, hurrying it down the 
 road to ultimate ruin by means of neu- 
 rasthenia, hysteria, etc. 
 
 The ideas here set forth had their origin 
 in a study by the author of the practical at- 
 tempts of Mr. Horace Fletcher to restore 
 his impaired health and declining efficiency, 
 and they have developed in the personal 
 experience which has continued since the 
 
 I shall select are concerned — that there is nothing pre- 
 ternatural in disease, that its phenomena or symptoms are 
 marked by a purpose, and that that purpose is beneficent. 
 I shall hope in these examples to demonstrate that the 
 processes of disease are aimed not at the destruction of 
 life, but at the saving of it, and that its manifestations 
 are the outcome of a natural effort towards cure. 
 
 • ' Disease, as popularly realised, is not one of the ills 
 that flesh is heir to, but one of the good gifts, for its 
 motive is benevolent and protective." — From an address 
 on " A Conception of Disease," by Sir Frederick Treves, 
 G. C. V. O. C. B., LL. D., Sergeant Surgeon to his 
 Majesty the King. Delivered to the Philosophical In- 
 stitution of Edinburgh in November, 1905. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 19 
 
 year 1901. Mr. Fletcher had had an 
 American training of quite a varied na- 
 ture, including marine, country, and city 
 experiences, which had been tested all over 
 the world, and which ensured his having, 
 at the outset of his inquiry into the root- 
 causes of his disabilities, a thorough con- 
 ception of the practical philosophy of the 
 man of action. He tried, and succeeded. 
 The amount of faith and indomitable per- 
 severance summed up in these few words 
 will never be known even by his friends. 
 Such things are done and forgotten in the 
 joys of success and in the satisfaction 
 created by the hard work for general 
 human interests such as he has subse- 
 quently undertaken. 
 
 The story of the gradual growth and 
 definition of the ideas that have become 
 so closely associated with his name are 
 best given by Mr. Fletcher himself. I 
 have heard him sum up his conclusions 
 as to foods and feeding by saying : " If 
 you eat only when you have an earned 
 appetite, masticate your food thoroughly, 
 
20 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 and take great care to eat only what ap- 
 petite approves, the rest will take care 
 of itself." This language is simple and 
 direct ; and, like many a great truth, it is 
 easily stated, but cannot be adequately 
 understood except through personal ex- 
 perience of the multiple benefits growing 
 out of its acceptance and adoption. It 
 involves a vast amount of understanding 
 through demonstration, and elucidation 
 through actual trial, in a world where 
 unscientific adaptation has made human- 
 ity the prey of thousands of suggestions 
 and opinions that are inseparable from 
 incomplete knowledge and incomplete 
 performance, and which result in pro- 
 found inefficiency. 
 
 The question, then, that must be asked 
 at the outset of such an inquiry as this is, 
 "What are the aptitudes and capabili- 
 ties possessed by human beings ? " The 
 mere asking of the question is a long 
 step in advance. 
 
 This is the first stage of humaniculture ; 
 which, it will be shown later on, is not yet 
 
INTRODUCTORY 21 
 
 attained nor even intelligently aimed at 
 by organised science. It would not be 
 of much use now to go beyond the facts 
 that are agreed upon by science at pres- 
 ent, and discuss a future development of 
 humaniculture with its dazzling hopes 
 and possibilities. Let us, by means of 
 careful research and observation, ascer- 
 tain the fundamental basic factors neces- 
 sary to a logically complete structure. 
 
 Spencer and other philosophers realised 
 that the goal of man was the harmonious 
 development of all his qualities and apti- 
 tudes. Our development at present is not 
 harmonious : it is fundamentally deficient, 
 more or less blundering and aimless. It 
 is so because, — simply and solely be- 
 cause, — as Comte pointed out in the case 
 of the world in general, there is insuffi- 
 cient positive knowledge of basic qualities 
 and aptitudes. Far more is thought of 
 the shadow, — the superficial and unim- 
 portant differences between people, — 
 than is thought of the substance, — the 
 points of human resemblances. We con- 
 
22 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 tent ourselves with well-thumbed and even 
 disproved and worn-out formulas, in an- 
 cient or modern forms, and alike with 
 scientific and unscientific methods and 
 material. Spencer dreamt, in the cramped 
 life of his boarding-house environment, 
 amidst the troubles of his healthless life, 
 " of the harmonious development of all 
 men's organs in all their functions." New- 
 ton, too, thought that the philosophy of 
 nature, developed by the experimental 
 method, ought to contribute to extend 
 and improve moral philosophy, in giving 
 man clearer ideas of his rights and duties. 
 These are the days in which the old 
 dreams of the progress of humanity are 
 being realised and materialised. Is it, 
 then, so impossible to materialise the 
 ideal of positive and progressive humani- 
 culture ? 
 
 The following pages are devoted to a 
 suggestion of means for bringing about 
 a realisation of this ideal of humanicul- 
 ture. The discussion is divided into 
 three parts : 
 
INTRODUCTORY 2$ 
 
 Part I., Chapters i to 7. This part 
 deals with a description of certain devel- 
 opments that have originated from the 
 work of Mr. Horace Fletcher on mas- 
 tication, taste, and appetite. It will, it is 
 hoped, be admitted that the facts sub- 
 mitted by an American business man to 
 the organisations of the medical sciences 
 demand the most careful consideration 
 and thorough investigation at their hands. 
 These contentions are practically to be 
 summed up under the general indictment 
 of an absence of orientation towards 
 humaniculture. The consequences of 
 this faulty orientation and organisation 
 are of a far-reaching and unsuspected 
 importance, inasmuch as the essential 
 duty of science to provide knowledge 
 to enable the population to adapt itself 
 to the rapidly changing conditions of the 
 past fifty years has been neglected. 
 
 Part II., Chapters 8 to 10. In order 
 to substantiate such views as those ad- 
 vanced in Part I. it is obvious that 
 it is necessary to give some general 
 
24 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 considerations of the history of medical 
 doctrines. In Chapter 9 is an account 
 of the activities and output of the hospi- 
 tals and laboratories, with points dealing 
 with their effects on modern ideals of 
 humaniculture. Chapter 10 is a brief 
 exposition of the most recent medical 
 doctrines that it is claimed show a ten- 
 dency to support the opinions advanced 
 in Part I. 
 
 Part III., Chapters 11 to 13. They 
 comprise suggestions for the develop- 
 ment of an apparatus for the acquisition 
 and distribution of the knowledge that 
 will enable everybody to conduct his life 
 to the best advantage. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF 
 FLETCHERISM 
 
 Biot said, " Nothing is clearer than what 
 was discovered yesterday, and nothing 
 more difficult to see than that which 
 one will find to-morrow." So it has 
 been with the remarkable story of a 
 great physiological discovery, made by 
 one who was not in the physiological 
 sense of the word an expert, but whose 
 passport to the attention of the organisa- 
 tions of science has been solely that of 
 success. The main element of the suc- 
 cess of Mr. Horace Fletcher's propa- 
 ganda has been that he was able to realise 
 a difficult principle. In these days of 
 individualism there is too great a ten- 
 dency to exaggerate the superficial and 
 insignificant differences between people, 
 
26 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 and to neglect the fundamentally impor- 
 tant common qualities, — those essentially 
 human aptitudes that we all possess. 
 Now, Mr. Fletcher has had the distinction 
 of making a discovery in aptitudes that 
 are not only human, but actually run 
 through the animal kingdom. The pos- 
 session of certain nerves, glands, and 
 muscles in the mouth corresponds to a 
 set of physical, chemical, and anatomical 
 distinctive characteristics. It will be the 
 task of science to ascertain as soon as 
 possible how far human beings approxi- 
 mate to what Gegenbaur has called the 
 poltophagic division of the animal king- 
 dom, and how much to the psomophagic 
 or non-masticating division. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher realises thoroughly that, as 
 Cicero said, nothing is discovered and per- 
 fected at the same time ; so he is devoting 
 his efforts to securing the fullest investi- 
 gation of the claims he has made for the 
 practice of his method. He feels that 
 the real motive power in all such matters 
 is, finally, public opinion, and he has lost 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 27 
 
 no opportunity of making the essential 
 features of his ideas as public as possible. 
 His story is interesting and inspiring. 
 Some years ago he found himself at that 
 stage of life where, after hard work in all 
 quarters of the globe, he was in a position 
 to retire from active business and devote 
 himself to enjoyment. He had occasion 
 to make an application for life insurance 
 and was refused. This was not encourag- 
 ing or agreeable at this stage of his life. 
 His symptoms were obesity, shortness of 
 breath, dyspepsia, loss of elasticity and 
 keenness ; in short, all those troubles 
 that we are accustomed to associate with 
 the failing health of so-called " advancing 
 age," but which would be more rightly 
 named " advancing death." He con- 
 sulted medical men in both America and 
 Europe, and had the usual consolations 
 that are administered under such circum- 
 stances, with, it is to be feared, the not 
 uncommon result of leaving things much 
 as they were. He then decided in a 
 practical business way to undertake his 
 
28 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 own regeneration. He happened at this 
 time to be occupied with some business 
 which necessitated a good deal of tedious 
 waiting at Chicago in midsummer when 
 most of his acquaintances were absent 
 from the city, and to help to spin out 
 the day he used to get through his meals 
 as slowly and deliberately as he could. 
 He noticed a very curious effect from 
 this : hunger was less frequent, he ate 
 less, his weight decreased, and his health 
 became decidedly improved. He then 
 and there made up his mind to experi- 
 ment in this direction, with the result that 
 in course of time he entirely recovered 
 his health. He then tried to get an ex- 
 planation from experts, but found none. 
 It is well worth while to reflect what this 
 persistence, that is so easily written about, 
 really entailed. There was literally no 
 one to help him. His friends — well, 
 most of us know how useful friends have 
 always been under such circumstances. 
 One of them begins with a well-meaning 
 attack of chaff, " so as to laugh him out 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 29 
 
 of his fad," and then when he sees he 
 has failed to do this the anxious friend 
 goes round in the community, shakes 
 his head, and pronounces poor old So- 
 and-So's case to be hopeless, often add- 
 ing, " Such a good chap, too, it is rough 
 luck on him." All sorts of explanations 
 are made to account for him. Members 
 of his family and old friends recall his 
 youthful escapades, and remember that 
 there is something about him that re- 
 sembles the eccentricities of a remote 
 ancestor, which explains things to their 
 satisfaction. In short, such an uncom- 
 fortable atmosphere is created that it 
 makes a wise man pack up and travel, if 
 he is free to do so. Mr. Fletcher went 
 through all this sort of thing, at the 
 same time acquiring a unique experience 
 in trying to make people understand 
 what he had found out. 
 
 After his recovery he tried the insurance 
 companies again, and, although he had to . 
 contend against the previous unfavourable 
 verdict, they said that they would gladly 
 
30 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 take him at ordinary rates. This is very- 
 good evidence of recovery ; life insurance 
 experts know their business well and rarely 
 change their verdict about a life-risk. 
 
 In the attempts that Mr. Fletcher made 
 to obtain a hearing for his discovery, he 
 found his greatest difficulty with the scep- 
 ticism of the medical profession. His 
 first convert was Dr. Van Someren of 
 Venice, who not only listened to what he 
 had to say, but has continued to give his 
 time and energies to studying and spread- 
 ing the new ideals. Dr. Van Someren 
 read a paper at the meeting of the British 
 Medical Association in 1901. Here he 
 attracted the attention of Professor Sir 
 Michael Foster. The matter was brought 
 forward again at the International Con- 
 gress at Turin in the same year. Sir 
 Michael Foster then showed his interest 
 by inviting Mr. Fletcher and Dr. Van 
 Someren to Cambridge, so that their 
 claims should receive scientific investiga- 
 tion. This was destined to be the start 
 of a new era in the work of exhaus- 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 3 1 
 
 tive study of human subjects and of 
 propagandism. Mr. Fletcher found that 
 Physiology had a considerable bogy to 
 confront him. with, called the Voit standard 
 of nitrogen nutrition. He was told that 
 in order to obtain acceptance of his ideas 
 it was first of all necessary to prove that 
 his own new standard of economy was 
 more nearly the optimum and that the 
 famous Voit standard was wrong. It 
 was obviously true that he and his col- 
 league presented curious and unusual phe- 
 nomena in the small amount they ate. 
 It was suggested that, perhaps if they 
 went on long enough, there might be one 
 of those lingering but inevitable calls to 
 the beyond in store for them. How 
 many would have persevered in the face 
 of such adverse warnings as these, with 
 every authority against them ? And those 
 who warned them most earnestly were 
 some of the highest in the world. There 
 is something about an American when 
 he is face to face with a fact which he 
 wishes to harmonise with other facts, or 
 
32 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 to make their inharmonious elements 
 work together for success, that makes 
 him fight until there is no more resist- 
 ance. Well, Mr. Fletcher believed in 
 the value of his claim, appreciated the 
 importance of the Court of Physiological 
 Authority to which he was appealing for 
 recognition of his claim to a new dis- 
 covery and had perhaps heard of the 
 success of the importunate widow, so he 
 imitated those well-known tactics and 
 stayed in Cambridge till they got quite 
 used to him, and began to take him more 
 seriously. After six months' waiting they 
 may have thought that he was going 
 to live there, but it looked less and less as 
 if he would die on their hands. Finally, 
 Sir Michael, who had been the original 
 means of the invitation to Cambridge, 
 and who had instituted the investigation 
 under the care of Dr. Hopkins, showed 
 those judicial qualities that distinguish 
 him by drawing up a report of the 
 Cambridge observations. As he is the 
 permanent president of the International 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 33 
 
 Congress of Physiology, he used this 
 position to induce the most important pro- 
 fessors of physiology in the world to sign 
 a document which declared that Mr. 
 Fletcher's work had practically raised the 
 whole question of human nutrition, and 
 that it was advisable that an interna- 
 tional laboratory should be founded and 
 an international inquiry inaugurated to 
 carry out investigations on the subject. 
 All these eminent men agreed to act in 
 the capacity of directors of the proposed 
 institute. Here follows Sir Michael Fos- 
 ter's report : 
 
 Experiments upon Human Nutrition 
 
 " In 1901 Dr. Ernest Van Someren sub- 
 mitted to the British Medical Associa- 
 tion, and afterwards to the Congress of 
 Physiologists at Turin, an account of 
 some experiments initiated by Mr. Hor- 
 ace Fletcher. These experiments went 
 to show that the processes of bodily 
 nutrition are very profoundly affected by 
 3 
 
34 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 the preliminary treatment of the food- 
 stuffs in the mouth, and indicated that 
 great advantages follow from the adop- 
 tion of certain methods in eating. The 
 essentials of these special methods, stated 
 briefly and without regard to certain 
 important theoretical considerations dis- 
 cussed by Dr. Van Someren, consist of a 
 specially prolonged mastication which is 
 necessarily associated with an insalivation 
 of the foodstuffs much more thorough 
 than is obtained with ordinary habits. 
 
 "The results brought to light by the 
 preliminary experimental trials went to 
 show that such treatment of the food has 
 a most important effect upon the economy 
 of the body, involving, in the first place, 
 a very notable reduction in the amount of 
 food — and especially of proteid food — 
 necessary to maintain complete efficiency. 
 
 "In the second place this treatment pro- 
 duced, in the experience of its originators, 
 an increase in the subjective and objective 
 well-being of those who practise it, and, 
 as they believe, in their power of resist- 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 35 
 
 ance to the inroads of disease. These 
 secondary effects may indeed be almost 
 assumed as a corollary of the first men- 
 tioned ; because there can be little doubt 
 that the ingestion of food — and per- 
 haps especially of proteid food — in ex- 
 cess of what is, under the best conditions, 
 sufficient for maintenance and activity, can 
 only be deleterious to the organism, clog- 
 ging it with waste products which may at 
 times be of a directly toxic nature. 
 
 " In the autumn of 1901 Mr. Fletcher 
 and Dr. Van Someren came to Cambridge 
 with the intention of having the matter 
 more closely inquired into, with the as- 
 sistance of physiological experts. The 
 matter evoked considerable interest in 
 Cambridge, and observations were made 
 not only upon those more immediately 
 interested, but upon other individuals, 
 some of whom were themselves medical 
 men and trained observers. 
 
 " Certain facts were established by these 
 observations, which, however, are to be 
 looked upon as still of a preliminary 
 
36 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 nature. The adoption of the habit of 
 thorough insalivation of the food was 
 found in a consensus of opinion to have 
 an immediate and very striking effect 
 upon appetite, making this more discrim- 
 inating, and leading to the choice of a 
 simple dietary, and in particular reducing 
 the craving for flesh food. The appetite, 
 too, is beyond all question fully satisfied 
 with a dietary considerably less in amount 
 than with ordinary habits is demanded. 
 
 " Numerical data were obtained in sev- 
 eral cases, but it is not proposed to deal 
 with these in detail here, as they need the 
 supplementary study which will be shortly 
 referred to. 
 
 "In two individuals who pushed the 
 method to its limits it was found that 
 complete bodily efficiency was maintained 
 for some weeks upon a dietary which had 
 a total energy value of less than one-half 
 of that usually taken, and comprised little 
 more than one- third of the proteid con- 
 sumed by the average man. 
 
 " It may be doubted if continued effi- 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 37 
 
 ciency could be maintained with such low 
 values as these, and very prolonged ob- 
 servations would be necessary to estab- 
 lish the facts. But all subjects of the 
 experiments who applied the principles 
 intelligently agreed in finding a very 
 marked reduction in their needs, and ex- 
 perienced an increase in their sense of 
 well-being and an increase in their work- 
 ing powers. 
 
 " One fact, fully confirmed by the Cam- 
 bridge observations, consists in the effect 
 of the special habits described upon the 
 waste products of the bowel. These are 
 greatly reduced in amount, as might be 
 expected ; but they are also markedly 
 changed in character, becoming odourless 
 and inoffensive, and assuming a condition 
 which suggests that the intestine is in a 
 healthier and more aseptic condition than 
 is the case under ordinary circumstances. 
 
 "Although the experiments hitherto 
 made are, as already stated, only pre- 
 liminary in nature and limited in scope, 
 they establish beyond all question that a 
 
38 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 full and careful study of the matter is 
 urgently called for. 
 
 " For this fuller study the Cambridge 
 laboratories do not possess at present either 
 the necessary equipment or the funds to 
 provide it. For the detailed study of the 
 physical efficiency of a man under varying 
 conditions, elaborate and expensive ap- 
 paratus is required ; and the advantages 
 claimed for the special treatment of the 
 food just discussed can only be fully tested 
 by prolonged and laborious experiments 
 calling for a considerable staff of workers. 
 
 " It is of great importance that the mind 
 of the lay public should be disabused of 
 the idea that medical science is possessed 
 of final information concerning questions 
 of nutrition. This is very far indeed 
 from being the case. Human nutrition 
 involves highly complex factors, and the 
 scientific basis for our knowledge of the 
 subject is but small ; where questions of 
 diet are concerned, medical teaching, no 
 less than popular practice, is to a great 
 extent based upon empiricism. 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 39 
 
 " But the scientific and social importance 
 of the question is clearly immense, and it 
 is greatly to be desired that its study 
 should be encouraged." 
 
 This was indeed a triumph for Mr. 
 Fletcher's patient and persistent labours. 
 He had secured the support of the great- 
 est authorities in the world to obtain a 
 respectful hearing. He was now a man 
 with an important problem, which, sooner 
 or later, some one or other would have 
 to solve. He had the good fortune to 
 find another practical sympathiser in Pro- 
 fessor Bowditch, of the Harvard Uni- 
 versity Medical School, who introduced 
 him to Professor Chittenden at Yale, 
 who was not only the Director of the 
 Sheffield Scientific School and President 
 of the American Physiological Society, 
 but is one of the most eminent of phys- 
 iological chemists. Here he was also 
 especially fortunate, because, for the first 
 time in his search, he found in Dr. 
 "William G. Anderson, Director of the 
 Yale University Gymnasium, a man who 
 
40 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 was a human physiologist more than in 
 name. Dr. Anderson not only studied 
 undergraduates, but was able to make 
 experiments with them, as he was their 
 trainer in athletic exercises. Dr. Ander- 
 son was able to render Mr. Fletcher a sig- 
 nal service by setting down in black and 
 white measurements which showed that his 
 claims to the possession of exceptional fit- 
 ness were actually and measurably true. 1 
 
 1 Dr. Anderson's report is embodied in Professor 
 Chittenden's account of Mr. Fletcher's examination as 
 printed in the "Popular Science Monthly," as follows : 
 
 "The writer has had in his laboratory for several 
 months past a gentleman (H. F. ) who has for some five 
 years, in pursuit of a study of the subject of human nu- 
 trition, practised a certain degree of abstinence in the 
 taking of food and attained important economy with, as 
 he believes, great gain in bodily and mental vigour, and 
 with marked improvement in his general health. Under 
 his new method of living he finds himself possessed of a 
 peculiar fitness for work of all kinds, and with freedom 
 from the ordinary fatigue incidental to extra physical ex- 
 ertion. In using the word ' abstinence,' possibly a wrong 
 impression is given, for the habits of life now followed 
 have resulted in the disappearance of the ordinary craving 
 for food. In other words, the gentleman in question 
 fully satisfies his appetite, but no longer desires the 
 amount of food consumed by most individuals. 
 
 " For a period of thirteen days, in January, he was 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 41 
 
 There is one thing that a scientific man 
 has clearly fixed in his head, and that is 
 
 under observation in the writer's laboratory, his excre- 
 tions being analysed daily with a view to ascertaining the 
 exact amount of proteid consumed. The results showed 
 that the average daily amount of proteid metabolised was 
 41.25 grams, the body-weight (165 pounds) remaining 
 practically constant. Especially noteworthy, also, was 
 the very complete utilisation of the proteid food during 
 this period of observation. It will be observed here that 
 the daily amount of proteid food taken was less than one- 
 half that of the minimum Voit standard, and it should 
 also be mentioned that this apparent deficiency in proteid 
 food was not made good by any large consumption of 
 fats or carbohydrates. Further, there was no restriction 
 in diet. On the contrary, there was perfect freedom of 
 choice, and the instructions given were to follow his 
 usual dietetic habits. Analysis of the excretions showed 
 an output of nitrogen equal to the breaking down of 
 41.25 grams of proteid per day as an average, the ex- 
 tremes being 33.06 grams and 47.03 grams of proteid. 
 
 " In February a more thorough series of observations 
 was made, involving a careful analysis of the daily diet, 
 together with analysis of the excreta, so that not alone 
 the proteid consumption might be ascertained, but like- 
 wise the total intake of fats and carbohydrates. The 
 diet consumed was quite simple, and consisted merely of 
 a prepared cereal food, milk, and maple sugar. This 
 diet was taken twice a day for seven days, and was 
 selected by the subject as giving sufficient variety for his 
 needs and quite in accord with his taste. No attempt 
 was made to conform to any given standard of quantity, 
 but the subject took each day such amounts of the above 
 
42 
 
 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 measurement, for science is measurement. 
 Take away the balance from the chemist and 
 
 foods as his appetite craved. Each portion taken, how- 
 ever, was carefully weighed in the laboratory, the chemi- 
 cal composition of the food determined, and the fuel 
 value calculated by the usual methods. 
 
 " The following table gives the daily intake of pro- 
 teids, fats, and carbohydrates for six days, together with 
 the calculated fuel value, and also the nitrogen intake, 
 together with the nitrogen output through the excreta. 
 Many other data were obtained showing diminished ex- 
 cretion of uric acid, ethereal sulphates, phosphoric acid, 
 etc., but they need not be discussed here. 
 
 
 Intake 
 
 Output of Nitrogen 
 
 
 Proteids 
 
 Fats 
 
 Carbohy 
 
 Calories 
 
 Nitro. 
 
 Urine 
 
 Faeces 
 
 Total 
 
 Feb. i 
 3 
 4 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 Grains 
 31-3 
 46.8 
 48.0 
 50.0 
 47.0 
 46.? 
 
 Grams 
 25.3 
 40.4 
 38.1 
 40.6 
 41-5 
 39.8 
 
 Grams 
 
 "5-4 
 260. z 
 283.0 
 269.0 
 267.0 
 307.3 
 
 900 
 1690 
 
 •747 
 171 1 
 
 1737 
 1852 
 
 Grams 
 5.02 
 7.50 
 7.70 
 8.00 
 7-49 
 7-44 
 
 Grams 
 5.27 
 6.24 
 5-S3 
 6.44 
 6.83 
 7-5° 
 
 Grams 
 0.18 
 0.81* 
 0.81* 
 0.81* 
 0.81* 
 0.17 
 
 Grams 
 
 5.45 
 7.05 
 6.34 
 7.25 
 7.64 
 7.67 
 
 Daily Av. 
 
 .44-9 
 
 3S.0 
 
 2530 
 
 1606 
 
 7.19 
 
 6.30 
 
 0.60 
 
 6.90 
 
 * Average of the four days. 
 
 " The main things to be noted in these results are, first, 
 that the total daily consumption of proteid amounted on 
 an average to only 45 grams, and that the fat and carbo- 
 hydrate were taken in quantities only sufficient to bring 
 the total fuel value of the daily food up to a little more 
 than 1,600 large calories. If, however, we eliminate 
 the first day, when for some reason the subject took an 
 unusually small amount of food, these figures are in- 
 creased somewhat, but they are ridiculously low com- 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 43 
 
 you take from him more than his eyes, — 
 you rob him of his science. Yet personal 
 
 pared with the ordinarily accepted dietary standards. 
 When we recall that the Voit standard demands at least 
 118 grams of proteid and a total fuel value of 3,000 
 large calories daily, we appreciate at once the full signifi- 
 cance of the above figures. But it may be asked, was 
 this diet at all adequate for the needs of the body — 
 sufficient for a man weighing 165 pounds? In reply, it 
 may be said that the appetite was satisfied, and that the 
 subject had full freedom to take more food if he so 
 desired. To give a physiological answer, it may be 
 said that the body-weight remained practically constant 
 throughout the seven days' period, and further, it will 
 be observed by comparing the figures of the table that 
 the nitrogen of the intake and the total nitrogen of the 
 output were not far apart. In other words, there was 
 a close approach to what the physiologist calls nitrogen- 
 ous equilibrium. In fact, it will be noted that on several 
 days the nitrogen output was slightly less than the nitro- 
 gen taken in. We are, therefore, apparently justified in 
 saying that the above diet, simple though it was in va- 
 riety, and in quantity far below the usually accepted 
 requirement, was quite adequate for the needs of the 
 body. In this connection it may be asked, what were 
 the needs of the body during this seven days' period ? 
 This is obviously a very important point. Can a man 
 on such a diet, even though it suffices to keep up body- 
 weight and apparently also physiological equilibrium, do 
 work to any extent ? Will there be under such condi- 
 tion a proper degree of fitness for physical work of any 
 kind ? In order to ascertain this point, the subject was 
 invited to do physical work at the Yale University Gym- 
 
44 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 observation has shown that quite recently, 
 in at least two of the largest physiological 
 
 nasium, and placed under the guidance of the director 
 of the gymnasium, Dr. William G. Anderson. The 
 results of the observations there made are here given, 
 taken verbatim from Dr. Anderson's report to the 
 writer. 
 
 "'On the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of February, 1903, 
 I gave to Mr. Horace Fletcher the same kind of exer- 
 cises we give to the Varsity Crew. They are drastic 
 and fatiguing and cannot be done by beginners without 
 soreness and pain resulting. The exercises he was asked 
 to take were of a character to tax the heart and lungs, as 
 well as to try the muscles of the limbs and trunk. I 
 should not give these exercises to Freshmen on account 
 of their severity. 
 
 ' ' ' Mr. Fletcher has taken these movements with an 
 ease that is unlooked for. He gives evidence of no sore- 
 ness or lameness, and the large groups of muscles re- 
 spond the second day without evidence of being poisoned 
 by Carbon dioxide. There is no evidence of distress 
 after or during the endurance test, /. e. , the long run. 
 The heart is fast but regular. It comes back to its 
 normal beat quicker than does the heart of other men of 
 his weight and age. 
 
 " ' The case is unusual, and I am surprised that Mr. 
 Fletcher can do the work of trained athletes and not give 
 marked evidences of over-exertion. As I am in almost 
 constant training I have gone over the same exercises, and 
 in about the same way, and have given the results for a 
 standard of comparison. [The figures are not given 
 here.] 
 
 " «My conclusion, given in condensed form, is this s 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 45 
 
 laboratories in Europe, there were no scales 
 that would weigh anything larger than a 
 
 Mr. Fletcher performs this work with greater ease and 
 with fewer noticeable bad results than any man of his 
 age and condition I have ever worked with.' 
 
 " To appreciate the full significance of this report, it 
 must be remembered that Mr. Fletcher had for several 
 months past taken practically no exercise other than that 
 involved in daily walks about town. 
 
 ' • In view of the strenuous work imposed during the 
 above four days, it is quite evident that the body had 
 need of a certain amount of nutritive material. Yet the 
 work was done without apparently drawing upon any 
 reserve the body may have possessed. The diet, small 
 though it was, and with only half the accepted require- 
 ment in fuel value, still suificed to furnish the requisite 
 energy. The work was accomplished with perfect ease, 
 without strain, without the usual resultant lameness, 
 without taxing the heart or lungs, and without loss of 
 body-weight. In other words, in Mr. Fletcher's case at 
 least, the body machinery was kept in perfect fitness 
 without the consumption of any such quantities of fuel 
 as has generally been considered necessary. 
 
 " Just here it may be instructive to observe that the 
 food consumed by Mr. Fletcher during this seven days' 
 period — and which has been shown to be entirely ade- 
 quate for his bodily needs during strenuous activity — 
 cost eleven cents daily, thus making the total cost for 
 the seven days seventy-seven cents! If we contrast 
 this figure with the amounts generally paid for average 
 nourishment for a like period of time, there is certainly 
 food for serious thought. Mr. Fletcher avers that he 
 has followed his present plan of living for nearly five 
 
46 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 dog, but in these laboratories numbers of 
 medical students receive their training in 
 
 years ; he usually takes two meals a day ; has been led 
 to a strong liking for sugar and carbohydrates in general 
 and away from a meat diet; is always in perfect health, 
 and is constantly in a condition of fitness for work. He 
 practises thorough mastication, with more complete in- 
 salivation of the food (liquid as well as solid) than is 
 usual, thereby insuring more complete and ready diges- 
 tion and a more thorough utilisation of the nutritive 
 portions of the food. 
 
 " In view of these results, are we not justified in ask- 
 ing ourselves whether we have yet attained a clear com- 
 prehension of the real requirements of the body in the 
 matter of daily nutriment? Whether we fully compre- 
 hend the best and most economical method of maintain- 
 ing the body in a state of physiological fitness ? The 
 case of Mr. Fletcher, just described ; the results noted 
 in connection with certain Asiatic peoples ; the fruit- 
 arians and aafarians in our own country recently studied 
 by Professor Jaffa, of the University of California, — all 
 suggest the possibility of much greater physiological 
 economy than we as a race are wont to practise. If 
 these are merely exceptional cases, we need to know it; 
 but if, on the other hand, it is possible for mankind in 
 general to maintain proper nutritive conditions on dietary 
 standards far below those now accepted as necessary, it 
 is time for us to ascertain that fact. For, if our stand- 
 ards are now unnecessarily high, then surely we are not 
 only practising an uneconomical method of sustaining 
 life, but we are subjecting ourselves to conditions the 
 reverse of physiological, and which must of necessity 
 be inimical to our well-being. The possibility of more 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 47 
 
 human physiology. It was largely due to 
 this examination of Mr. Fletcher, as to 
 his measurable strength and endurance, 
 by Dr. Anderson that determined Pro- 
 fessor Chittenden to undertake the famous 
 inquiry that resulted in his report which 
 showed men to be able to work better, 
 
 scientific knowledge of the natural requirements of a 
 healthy nutrition is made brighter by the fact that the 
 economic results noted in connection with our metabo- 
 lism examination of Mr. Fletcher is confirmatory of 
 similar results obtained under the direction and scrutiny 
 of Sir Michael Foster at the University of Cambridge, 
 England, during the autumn and winter of last year; 
 and by Dr. Ernest Van Someren, Mr. Fletcher's collabo- 
 rateur, in Venice, on subjects of various ages and of both 
 sexes, some account of which has already been presented 
 to the British Medical Association and to the Interna- 
 tional Congress of Physiologists at its last meeting at 
 Turin, Italy. At the same time emphasis must be laid 
 upon the fact that no definite and positive conclusions 
 can be arrived at, except as the result of careful experi- 
 ments and observations on many individuals covering 
 long periods of time. This, however, the writer hopes 
 to do in the very near future, with the cooperation of a 
 corps of interested observers. The problem is far- 
 reaching. It involves not alone the individual, but 
 society as a whole, for beyond the individual lies the 
 broader field of the community, and what proves helpful 
 for the one will eventually react for the betterment of so- 
 ciety, and for the improvement of mankind in general." 
 
48 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 play better, and have better health, not on 
 the Voit standard, but on half or one- 
 third of the amount of nitrogen the text- 
 books prescribed as essential. 
 
 So, then, the task that the physiologists 
 had set Mr. Fletcher at Cambridge Uni- 
 versity in England, to discredit the Voit 
 standard, was settled for him in America. 
 This was followed by another scientific in- 
 vestigation of nearly equal importance, 
 undertaken by Dr. Folin, the chemical- 
 physiologist on the staff of the Massa- 
 chusetts General Hospital, in charge of the 
 laboratory of the McLean Hospital for 
 the Insane at Waverley, Massachusetts. 
 Dr. Folin successfully explained how it 
 was that Dr. Van Someren was enabled to 
 maintain his health with so small an allow- 
 ance of nitrogenous food. By means of 
 an exhaustive system of chemical analysis 
 he was able to demonstrate that not only 
 Dr. Van Someren, but other people who 
 were accustomed to the habit of the Voit 
 standard of nitrogenous equilibrium, could 
 in a short space of time acquire what 
 
HISTORY OF FLETCHERISM 49 
 
 may now be called the Fletcher standard. 
 The extensive and laborious researches of 
 both Professor Chittenden and Dr. Folin, 
 looked at from the point of view alone of 
 scientific performances, were of the first 
 rank. Professor Chittenden had the help 
 of Surgeon-General O'Reilly, of the United 
 States army, who secured for him the co- 
 operation of a number of soldiers who 
 volunteered to serve as subjects. Besides 
 these, he had some athletes and some col- 
 leagues for the experiments. It is most 
 important to remember, in connection with 
 the contentions of this book, that these 
 conclusive, confirmatory scientific experi- 
 ments were undertaken in consequence of 
 Mr. Fletcher's successful attempt to re- 
 store his own health, showing clearly that 
 there is another and sometimes more 
 direct way of attaining desirable results 
 than that of finding out how first, — that 
 of doing first, and finding out how after- 
 wards. At any rate, it is far easier, now 
 that his success has been explained, for 
 those who wish to follow Mr, Fletcher's 
 4 
 
SO HUMANICULTURE 
 
 lead than it was before. The length of 
 time necessary for obtaining the authorita- 
 tive recognition of Mr. Fletcher's dis- 
 covery surely shows that the methods of 
 science require fundamental modification 
 when they deal with matters of such 
 broad human interest. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 
 
 At first sight it may be thought that 
 there is little opportunity for novel views 
 in the knowledge of the process of masti- 
 cation. It is profitable to recollect, how- 
 ever, as Mr. Fletcher first pointed out, 
 that the three inches of the alimentary 
 region, from the lips to the soft palate, is 
 the only part of the thirty feet of the 
 intestinal canal where there are discrimi- 
 nating apparatus and functions that are in 
 any way under the control of the will. 
 
 Pavlov has recently shown us that 
 there are a number of nervous impulses 
 that originate in the mouth, when the 
 masticating and insalivating processes are 
 properly carried out, that control the sub- 
 sequent digestive processes. So that not 
 only the quality, but the quantity, as well 
 as the physical condition, of the ingested 
 
52 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 food depend on the occurrences in the 
 mouth. From these short statements it 
 will be seen that it is the business of 
 every one to understand the phenomena 
 presented by the mouth as thoroughly as 
 possible. 
 
 In the writings of a famous German an- 
 atomist a statement was made that passed 
 unnoticed by both anatomists and physi- 
 ologists till Mr. Fletcher stirred up our 
 interest in the subject. In Gegenbaur's 
 " Anatomie der Wirbelthiere," p. 90 (Ver- 
 gleichender), is found the following : " The 
 bifurcation of the alimentary canal below 
 the soft palate does not depend only on its 
 relation with the epiglottis, but also on the 
 condition of the food. The exclusive use 
 of this means of swallowing is only pos- 
 sible with finely divided food. ... I have 
 called this way of taking food Poltophagy 
 (poltos = masticated, finely divided), and 
 the other, Psomophagy (psomos = biting, 
 tearing)." This most important observa- 
 tion was one that Gegenbaur recommended 
 should be most carefully investigated, 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 53 
 
 To appreciate thoroughly what follows, 
 it is necessary to realise the law of atrophy 
 and hypertrophy. Atrophy of muscle 
 means that, from want of use, the substance 
 wastes and the muscle ultimately becomes 
 useless. This phenomenon is well illus- 
 trated in the case of those Indian fakirs 
 who hold their arms above their heads till 
 the joints are fixed and the muscles are 
 permanently wasted. Hypertrophy means 
 unusual development from unusual work ; 
 as, for instance, in the case of blacksmiths, 
 with their well-developed arms, shoulders, 
 and chests. In anatomy it is found to be 
 a law that one can look on muscles as a 
 crystallisation of function ; that is to say, 
 that their presence alone implies that they 
 are used, and as they are used they are 
 wanted by the animal. Another thing that 
 anatomy teaches is that there is nothing 
 superfluous in the body, and so conse- 
 quently the structures that are functioned 
 in so vitally important a region as the 
 mouth, it is needless to say, merit our 
 most respectful consideration. 
 
54 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 If one examines the soft palate of a 
 dog, it is seen to be thin, even translu- 
 cent; in its centre are found merely three 
 or four muscular fibres instead of a muscle. 
 These fibres are too scanty and scattered 
 to aid, to any but an insignificant extent, 
 the elevation of the soft palate. The 
 epiglottis is a cartilaginous body found over 
 the larynx and attached to the base of the 
 tongue. In the dog the epiglottis is very 
 small and applied closely to the tongue. 
 The food is swallowed over the top of the 
 epiglottis instead of by its sides. The 
 translucent soft palate and the small and 
 insignificant epiglottis are evidence that 
 neither of them serves any very important 
 purpose to the dog. 
 
 When, on the other hand, a horse is 
 examined, one finds an entirely different 
 state of affairs. There is a long, muscular 
 soft palate as long as the hard bony 
 palate. The epiglottis, which is, relatively 
 speaking, enormous, stands up so as to 
 divide the opening into the oesophagus 
 into two. Each of these openings in the 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 55 
 
 relatively-large horse is no larger than 
 the single opening in a small dog. In 
 the case of the horse, then, one finds that 
 the masticated and insalivated food is di- 
 vided into two currents passing down 
 either side of the epiglottis. The open- 
 ings are so small and valve-like that a 
 horse is actually unable to breathe through 
 its mouth. 
 
 The differences between the horse and 
 dog in this respect then are, that the horse 
 is obliged to masticate, and is therefore 
 poltophagic ; and the dog swallows his 
 food in large pieces, and is therefore 
 psomophagic ; in other words, he has not 
 efficient machinery for mastication, but 
 he has good apparatus for tearing. 
 
 When the principles of atrophy and 
 hypertrophy are borne in mind in these 
 instances, it becomes of great interest to 
 observe the state of affairs in man. It is 
 of the utmost importance to recollect that 
 these differences between the horse and 
 dog are by no means merely anatomical. 
 There is, as well, an absolutely different 
 
56 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 digestive apparatus from both a chemical 
 and physical point of view. Just what 
 these differences in metabolism are, is not 
 yet thoroughly known. That is to say, 
 the differences have not been so clearly de- 
 fined as to vitiate those conclusions drawn 
 from physiological experiments on animals 
 being applied to the physiological phe- 
 nomena in man. So that when one is 
 able to show that in the case of man there 
 is a full development of the muscles of 
 the soft palate, it acquires a more im- 
 portant significance than appears at first 
 sight. Enough has been said to show 
 that it is of the highest importance for 
 each of us to have the clearest information 
 of the aptitudes and attributes of the soft 
 palate in man. The following experi- 
 ments demonstrate certain phenomena 
 that can be observed with the mouth. 
 
 The apparatus is very simple, consisting 
 of a U-tube of a sufficiently large size, 
 and a physiological instrument known as 
 a Marey's ambour, which consists of a 
 drum provided with an india-rubber mem- 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 57 
 
 brane. To this membrane is attached 
 a lever which records its movements. 
 
 Figure i. 
 
 The cavity of the drum communicates by 
 means of an india-rubber tube with the 
 
58 ' HUMANICULTURE 
 
 cavity in which the variations of pressure 
 are recorded. Accordingly, if the india- 
 rubber tube is connected with one nostril 
 while the other is closed, it will be found 
 in this experiment to record the variations 
 of pressure due to respiration. The 
 U-tube is filled with coloured water, and 
 one of its limbs is provided with a 
 mouthpiece. 
 
 If one causes a positive (or blowing) 
 pressure in the mouth the water ascends 
 in the remote limb. If a negative (or 
 suction) pressure is created the water rises 
 in the proximal limb. Both negative and 
 positive pressures can be attained and 
 maintained, as well as rapidly alternating 
 negative and positive pressures. From 
 40 to 50 c.cms. of the liquid can be sucked 
 up into the mouth. Only 15 to 20 c.cms. 
 can be sucked up when the tongue is pro- 
 truded. Now any of these movements 
 can be carried out during (1) Slow in- 
 spiration, (2) slow expiration, (3) absence 
 of respiration, (4) hurried respiration, (5) 
 when the tongue is protruded. These 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 59 
 
 coincident and respiratory movements 
 are shown by the lever of the Marey's 
 tambour. The possible agencies in the 
 production of such movements are : the 
 respiratory muscles, the tongue muscles, 
 and the muscles of the cheeks and soft 
 
 Figure 2. 
 
 palate. If, then, the respiratory move- 
 ments are eliminated, the tongue elimi- 
 nated through its protrusion, and the 
 cheeks seen and felt not to be concerned 
 with the recorded movements, there is 
 clear evidence that the movements are 
 produced by the muscles of the soft 
 palate. 
 
60 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 When, however, it is wished to ascer- 
 tain the character of the movements of 
 the soft palate during mastication, it is 
 necessary to record the movements from 
 its hinder surface. The following ex- 
 periments are obviously not of so clear 
 a character as the former, because one 
 has to make use of the narrow passage in 
 the nostril. An instrument the size and 
 shape of an Eustachian catheter is used; 
 it is jointed at a, the movable portion 
 b being attached to a thread c, which 
 passes through a jointed handled. This 
 instrument can be passed through the 
 nostril so that its movable limb b can 
 rest on the hinder surface of the soft 
 palate. The thread that passes through 
 the hollow handle d can be attached to 
 the tambour shown in the diagram, so as 
 to record the movements graphically on a 
 revolving drum covered with smoked 
 paper. 
 
 In Figure 3 is shown one of these 
 graphic registers : A shows the record of 
 a positive or blowing pressure, produced 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 6l 
 
 by, and coincident with, a forward move- 
 ment of the soft palate ; B shows a nega- 
 tive or suction pressure, produced by a 
 backward movement of the soft palate; 
 C shows rapidly alternating positive and 
 negative pressures. 
 
 It is clear, then, that if the soft palate 
 moves forward during the production of 
 
 H 'i A'^u'u^u 
 
 ^ 
 
 -^mimwv w' 
 
 • 
 
 Figure 3. 
 
 positive pressures and backward in nega- 
 tive pressures, it is an active agent in their 
 production. 
 
 The former experiments also show that 
 the soft palate makes the cavity of the 
 mouth air-tight. 
 
 In Figure 4, graphic records of move- 
 ments of deglutition are shown. 
 
 B shows a tracing that follows the 
 partial protrusion of the tongue. Warm 
 water is poured into the space between 
 the soft palate and the tongue. When 10 
 
62 
 
 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 to 15 c.cms. have been introduced, a deg- 
 lutition takes place. This comprises a 
 forward movement of the soft palate. In 
 tracing A, on the contrary, there is an 
 effort of deglutition where a mouthful is 
 swallowed in a gulp. In this case, instead 
 of an active pushing movement as in B, 
 there is a sustained backward movement, 
 
 Figure 4. 
 
 showing that the soft palate is raised. B 
 is an instance of poltophagic and A of 
 psomophagic swallowing. 
 
 It must be remembered that the ex- 
 cursions of the movable limb of the instru- 
 ment are necessarily very limited, and that 
 there would not be a distinction between 
 a lifting movement (as in psomophagic 
 deglutition) and an increased concavity 
 during the time that the lower border 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 63 
 
 is applied to the tongue, as it is pre- 
 sumed to occur during the production of 
 a negative pressure in the closed mouth. 
 
 Poltophagic Mastication and Deglutition. 
 
 I will describe the ingestion of a piece of 
 currant cake, as it best illustrates the phe- 
 nomena of thorough mastication. During 
 mastication there is a complex series of 
 co-ordinated, unconscious, and automatic 
 contractions of the muscles of the cheeks, 
 the lips, the jaws, the tongue, and the soft 
 palate, excited by afferent and efferent im- 
 pulses. As the starch is transformed into 
 dextrose it is dissolved by the saliva. If 
 it was allowed to remain in the anterior 
 buccal cavity it would inhibit the further 
 action of the ptyalin. This is prevented 
 by the action of the tongue and soft pal- 
 ate, alternately producing positive and 
 negative pressures in the closed mouth. 
 From time to time samples of the fluid 
 contents of the anterior buccal cavity are 
 withdrawn into the buccal passage (its 
 further progress may possibly be arrested 
 
64 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 by the pressure of the tongue against 
 the hard palate if it is not acceptable to the 
 end organs in the neighbourhoods of the 
 circum vallate papillae), where it passes on 
 to the posterior buccal cavity. 1 When 
 sufficient has collected, a swallowing im- 
 pulse is excited. It is presumed that the 
 tongue is pressed upwards against the 
 hard palate so as to form a point d'appui 
 for the contraction of the soft palate, to 
 close the posterior buccal cavity, and to 
 help in the expulsion of its contents. 
 The mylohyoid in contracting makes the 
 laryngeal furrows more vertical. The 
 fluid contents are then forced out into the 
 pharynx, the buccal cavity is reclosed, and 
 the material is collected for the next polto- 
 phagic deglutition. 2 When the process of 
 
 1 I have frequently remarked during the last two years, 
 while there is a diminution of the contents of the mouth 
 during mastication, that fluid can be regurgitated from 
 the posterior buccal cavity (while it is filling) on to the 
 dorsum of the tongue, and that it is rapidly sucked back 
 again. I have been able to repeat this experiment several 
 times in succession. 
 
 2 This part of the description is provisional only, and 
 depends on whether the nature of the soft palate as shown 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 65 
 
 mastication and deglutition is completed, 
 there is nothing left but some almost dry 
 currant skins and stones ; even these may 
 possibly be disposed of if the teeth are 
 good enough to divide them finely. 
 
 It is necessary to understand clearly 
 what is meant by the phrase, "a com- 
 plex series of co-ordinated, unconscious, 
 and automatic movements of the muscles 
 due to reflex actions." 
 
 When a pianist reads music, an impulse 
 passes, by means of the action of rays of 
 light stimulating the nerves of sight, to 
 the brain, where it is interpreted. Then 
 a series of changes takes place in the brain 
 cells that convey other impulses to the 
 nerves which control the muscles of the 
 forearms, so that the correct note should 
 be struck. This long series of compli- 
 cated movements is conducted with such 
 rapidity by practised players that it actu- 
 ally interferes with and practically arrests 
 the movements if the attention of the will 
 
 by the tracing is confirmed by actual observation of a case 
 in which the maxilla has b.een removed. 
 S 
 
66 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 is used to direct them. In the practised 
 player, the incidence of the ray of light 
 on the brain is apparently coincident with 
 the striking of the note, so rapid is it. 
 This, then, is an example of co-ordinated, 
 automatic, and unconscious acts produced 
 by education. 
 
 The movements of mastication and deg- 
 lutition are so complicated that the series 
 of events has to be as natural as breathing. 
 To give as clear an idea as possible of the 
 actual complexity of the processes, it will 
 be necessary to go through the most 
 prominent movements and reflex acts. 
 When food is taken into the mouth a 
 flow of saliva results. This dissolves the 
 soluble parts and enables the material to 
 give more accurate information of its char- 
 acter to the special nerves. The special 
 sense nerves then convey impulses that 
 affect the roots of the nerves to the brain, 
 which control six large glands as well as a 
 number of smaller ones. These impulses 
 arrange that the right mixture of saliva be 
 poured into the mouth. At the same 
 
MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION 67 
 
 time the teeth, tongue, and cheeks are 
 engaged by means of another series of 
 impulses in dividing the food as finely as 
 possible. The tongue has another func- 
 tion, in that it not only aids mastication, 
 but it secures the passage of prepared food 
 into the pharynx. It is capable, by means 
 of its interlacing fibres, of assuming an 
 amazing number of different shapes. 
 
 To enable one to understand its action, 
 a good plan is to look on the tongue and 
 soft palate as two lock-gates interposed in 
 the stream of the food passing from the 
 mouth to the pharynx. The tongue 
 forms the first gate, allowing the passage 
 of food into the lock (the space between 
 the soft palate and the tongue) till it is 
 full, then the tongue closes down and 
 shuts off the cavity of the mouth ; this is 
 followed by the opening of the soft palate, 
 which is the lock-gate separating the lock 
 from the opening into the oesophagus. 
 
 It is clear, then, that man differs from 
 the horse, in that he can swallow food 
 psomophagically and the horse cannot. 
 
68 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 He differs from the dog, in that dogs are 
 unable to swallow food poltophagically. 
 That is to say, that man has at the same 
 time a poltophagic and a psomophagic 
 faculty. In the case of the anthropoid 
 apes and man there has been a shortening 
 of the upper jaw from before backwards, 
 on account of the assumption of the erect 
 posture which has resulted in the soft 
 palate becoming more vertical, and thus 
 enabling psomophagic deglutition to be 
 practised. The important matter to de- 
 cide is, whether man approximates to the 
 metabolic characteristics of the polto- 
 phagic or to those of the psomophagic 
 animals. To recapitulate, Mr. Fletcher 
 has drawn attention to a human faculty 
 that was not recognised ; this faculty is 
 constantly made use of, in that the neces- 
 sary apparatus in the shape of nerves and 
 muscles are present. If the process is 
 used to its full extent, a certain series of 
 phenomena result, which will be recorded 
 in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 TASTE AND APPETITE 
 
 Mr. Fletcher not only described what 
 he so aptly called a food-filter, but he 
 also claimed to be able to demonstrate 
 that the body is capable of deciding by 
 taste and appetite the character and 
 amount of food that should be eaten. 
 More than three years' personal experience 
 has convinced me of the substantial truth 
 of this statement. 
 
 In the last chapter, the scientific support 
 that has resulted from the study of the 
 apparatus of mastication suggested by 
 Mr. Fletcher was described. It is now 
 necessary to examine the factors that are 
 concerned with appetite and taste. 
 
 Appetite had been somewhat neglected 
 by physiologists on account of some ob- 
 servations that had been made in the 
 famous case of Alexis St. Martin, a Cana- 
 
JO HUMANICULTURE 
 
 dian, who had an aperture made in his 
 stomach as the result of a gunshot wound. 
 These observations were thought to show 
 that the stimulus for the secretion of the 
 gastric juice was mere contact of the food 
 with the walls of the stomach. This idea, 
 since then, has dominated the attitude of 
 the medical profession towards feeding in 
 health and disease. It has resulted in 
 patients being fed whether they had an 
 appetite or not. Speaking generally, there 
 are many cases where it is now thought to 
 be better to give only small quantities of 
 food when the appetite is bad, and in cer- 
 tain cases an indication is seen of omitting 
 food altogether; for instance, Professor 
 Hericourt of Paris recommends that in 
 bad cases of dyspepsia it is advisable to 
 put the patient to bed for a week or ten 
 days without food. 
 
 The idea of the contact stimulus for 
 the flow of gastric juice has received its 
 death-blow from the recent researches of 
 Professor Pavlov, who showed very clearly 
 that by far the most important stimulus 
 
TASTE AND APPETITE J I 
 
 was in all cases appetite, or taste. It is 
 not unworthy of reflection that an emi- 
 nent professor should be awarded the 
 Nobel Prize for demonstrating, at so late 
 a period of the history of Physiology, 
 such an important fact in the phenomena 
 of digestion. The world did not suffer 
 so much for the tardiness of physiological 
 researchers in emphasising this important 
 factor as it might have done, because it 
 was fortunately one of those facts that 
 are called, somewhat too contemptuously, 
 mere popular or instinctive knowledge. 
 When Mr. Fletcher was so emphatic in his 
 claims of the value of appetite and taste in 
 feeding, no notice was taken. But so soon 
 as a number of experiments which proved 
 his claims, made in a laboratory on dogs, 
 were reported, many medical men were 
 astonished that so plain and obvious a 
 matter should not have been known be- 
 fore. Can we not fairly say from this 
 failure to notice one of the most impor- 
 tant indications in human nutrition, that 
 in at least some questions that apper- 
 
72 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 tain to humaniculture the ways of science 
 cannot be described as business-like and 
 methodical ? It is useful to recall the 
 words in which Professor Pavlov summed 
 up his conclusions : 
 
 " It is only by the establishment of this 
 passionate desire for eating that unerring 
 and untiring nature has linked the seeking 
 and finding of food with the commence- 
 ment of the work of digestion. That 
 this factor, which we have now so care- 
 fully analysed, stands in closest relation 
 with a phenomenon of daily life — 
 namely, appetite — may easily be pre- 
 dicted. That agency which is so impor- 
 tant to life and so full of mystery to science 
 becomes at length incorporated into flesh 
 and blood, transformed from a subjective 
 sensation into a concrete factor of the 
 physiological laboratory. We are justi- 
 fied in saying that appetite is the first and 
 mightiest exciter of the secretory nerves 
 of the stomach." * 
 
 1 It is to the credit of Pavlov that he refers to Blondlot, 
 a French physiologist of fifty years before, as having as- 
 
TASTE AND APPETITE 73 
 
 As to the real physical factor that deter- 
 mines the phenomenon of appetite, beyond 
 the general conception that it is an indica- 
 tion of the want of food, we have no clew. 
 To give some idea of the appetite phenom- 
 ena that have been observed in the prac- 
 tice and study of poltophagy, it will be 
 necessary to deal briefly with the points 
 of interest under the following headings : 
 
 (1) Variations in Appetite. Appetite 
 varies from a well-defined and decided 
 appetite for certain articles of food, such 
 as rice, meat, bread, or butter, to what is 
 sometimes called a " finnicking " appetite. 
 There may be an ill-defined general appe- 
 tite, the state in which one says, " Any- 
 thing will do, I really don't know what I 
 want." Speaking generally, an individual 
 is usually at his best with a definite ap- 
 petite for one or more ingredients of 
 the food groups detailed in the following 
 pages. 
 
 serted in his time what he (Pavlov) has proved to be true 
 as above, but his work had not been properly appreciated 
 by physiologists since his time. 
 
74 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 (2) Cessation of Appetite. There is 
 an invariable and striking phenomenon 
 observed in the practice of poltophagy, 
 which is the manner in which one knows 
 that no more food is required. Some- 
 times, almost without warning, appetite 
 ceases, and if eating is persisted in, even 
 the next mouthful is distasteful. This 
 phenomenon is usually noticed the first 
 time that the process is practised after at- 
 tention has been directed to it, which may 
 show that, in these cases at any rate, it is 
 due to tiredness of the muscles of masti- 
 cation; another suggestion is that the 
 sudden cessation of appetite is due to the 
 failure of the secretion of saliva. At any 
 rate, this well-marked end-point to appe- 
 tite affords a most valuable natural pro- 
 tection to the needs of the body, which it 
 is obvious must vary from day to day. 
 When this faculty has been allowed to be 
 blunted by disuse, there is nothing but a 
 sense of repletion to guide one when to 
 cease eating, though of course there are 
 many who are abstemious by habit. It 
 
TASTE AND APPETITE 75 
 
 is more than probable that the group of 
 diseases alluded to earlier as those that 
 Bouchard looks on as being associated 
 with " slow nutrition " are the result of 
 psomophagic habits. 
 
 (3) The Frequency of jif petite. Ac- 
 cording to a valuable suggestion of Mr. 
 Fletcher, no food should be taken with- 
 out appetite. In the case of a beginner, 
 in the practice of careful poltophagy ap- 
 petite may come at irregular times, vary- 
 ing naturally with the way in which the 
 day has been spent. In those cases where 
 there is a sedentary occupation without 
 any great amount of physical exertion 
 there is commonly a call for only one 
 meal in the day, somewhere about mid- 
 day. A second appetke may develop 
 between five and six. There should be 
 no attempt to make any alterations in 
 the ordinary meal-times without strong 
 counter indications. One of the most 
 prominent changes is the absence of ap- 
 petite for breakfast, which enables a good 
 day's work to be done before the midday 
 
76 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 meal. This may not occur for more than 
 two years after beginning the practice, 
 so that it is by no means advisable to 
 force matters, but to be guided by the 
 appetite. 
 
 (4) The Absence of Appetite. When 
 there is no appetite whatever, it is far 
 better to refrain from taking food, even 
 for so long an interval as two or three 
 days, provided always that there is no un- 
 easiness or fear of the consequences. It 
 is usually advisable under such circum- 
 stances to go to bed, especially if there is 
 much acidity. 
 
 (5) Hunger. There is a great differ- 
 ence between hunger and appetite. It 
 may be said that in connection with the 
 practice of poltophagy there is practically 
 none of that uncomfortable faint hunger 
 so often present with psomophagic habits. 
 When for any reason it is necessary to 
 omit the usual meal, there is little dis- 
 comfort, and the appetite seems to be 
 conveniently postponed ; this is especially 
 true when one is much occupied. 
 
TASTE AND APPETITE •J'J 
 
 Food and Taste 
 
 An attractive feature of Mr. Fletcher's 
 claims is that the body can be trusted to 
 choose the food it requires by taste. In 
 other words, that the food that gives the 
 greatest pleasure is the best that can be 
 taken. With certain limitations which 
 can be readily understood, this is true. A 
 good example is afforded by the follow- 
 ing case. There was not unfrequently 
 an inordinate appetite for fruit-juice, as 
 much as the juice of from twenty to thirty 
 oranges or two or three pounds of grapes 
 being relished. The valuable constituent 
 of the juice was its vegetable salts; it 
 was therefore assumed that the body 
 needed them. They were administered 
 in another form ; a solution (or soup) 
 was prepared by boiling a quantity of 
 finely divided vegetables in milk or water 
 for over two hours. The usual method , 
 of boiling vegetables in water and throw- 
 ing it away, leaves mainly the indigestible 
 cellulose residue which is responsible for 
 
78 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 the indigestion of some vegetarians. At 
 any rate, in this case as well as in others, 
 the craving for this solution of salts con- 
 tinued for long periods that accompanied 
 some interesting symptoms incident to the 
 disappearance of chronic gout. 
 
 Foods for which appetite has a distinct 
 craving at varying intervals can be con- 
 veniently grouped under the following 
 heads : 
 
 (i) Starches , Dextrines, Sugars. It is 
 noticed that in some cases there is a de- 
 cided absence of appetite for starch, and, 
 if it is taken in spite of the disinclination 
 of appetite, it is apt to be followed by 
 acidity and indigestion. In such cases it 
 will be found that dextrinised starch is 
 readily tolerated and called for regularly 
 by the appetite. Starch is easily dextrin- 
 ised by thoroughly baking the bread a 
 second time with considerable heat, by 
 toasting, or by frying starchy foods in oil 
 or butter. This fact probably accounts 
 for the popularity of that large class of 
 patent cereal foods that have the common 
 
TASTE AND APPETITE 79 
 
 characteristic of being prepared by super- 
 cooking. Starch itself is usually called 
 for in the form of potatoes, rice, and 
 bread. It has been noticed in a number 
 of cases that a craving for pastry and 
 candies sometimes occurs after the midday 
 meal in the late afternoon. This appetite 
 has been found to be absent when suffi- 
 cient dextrine has been partaken of earlier 
 in the day. 
 
 (1) Fats. Practically, without excep- 
 tion, all early cases crave an unusual 
 quantity of fat, either as butter or cream ; 
 as much as from 100 to 150 grms. a day 
 being habitually taken. In one case of 
 obesity this amount was taken as well 
 as one or two pints of milk ; during this 
 time there was a loss in weight of about 
 two kilograms a week. When this appe- 
 tite is prominent, it is necessary to pro- 
 vide the purest possible cream and butter. 
 Early cases seem to be peculiarly liable to 
 disturbances in consequence of any defect 
 in the quality or freshness of food. 
 
 (3) Proteids. The appetite for this 
 
80 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 form of food tends to be the least decided. 
 When for any reason there has been 
 a deficiency of proteid in the diet, it is 
 commonly recognised by faintness, ner- 
 vousness, or irritability, rather than a de- 
 fined appetite. This is by no means 
 always the case, especially when one form 
 of proteid is invariably taken. Perhaps 
 this occurs because proteid is the tasteless 
 ingredient of so many foods. In the case 
 of meat, a fierce and unmistakable crav- 
 ing is occasionally met with, following on 
 physical strain and worry, especially when 
 there is want of condition. A plausible 
 explanation of this condition is afforded 
 by the research of Dr. Sloss of Brussels, 
 who demonstrated that muscle gives off 
 NH 3 instead of CO a when there is tetanus. 
 This may show that in cases where there 
 is habitual strain, and possibly in cases of 
 " nutrition retardante," the muscle tissues 
 tend to consume proteid. In other words, 
 this form of proteid hunger (it is usually 
 more than appetite) perhaps shows that it 
 is easier for the muscle to obtain its mate- 
 
TASTE AND APPETITE 8 1 
 
 rial for energy from proteid than from fat 
 or starch. 
 
 It is interesting to note that healthy 
 starch feeders have apparently far more 
 staying power, and, speaking generally, 
 they show the least evidence of wear and 
 tear of the body. This fact is well illus- 
 trated in the case of the Tyrolese peasants, 
 where a man over fifty can carry two hun- 
 dred and twenty pounds up a mountain of 
 three thousand feet. It is said that the 
 British navvy (day laborer), who eats on an 
 average some two to three pounds of meat 
 a day, is of little use after forty. Is it not 
 possible that as starch burns up com- 
 pletely when oxidised into H a O and C0 2 , 
 it is less expensive to the organism than 
 either fat or proteid ? It is interesting to 
 note that in the author's case there is a 
 decided tendency to take starch in increas- 
 ing quantities with much less fat than in 
 the earlier stages of poltophagy. 
 
 (4) Vegetable Salts. Most fruit and 
 
 vegetables are probably mainly useful for 
 
 their salts. That such salts are an im- 
 6 
 
82 ■ HUMANICULTURE 
 
 portant ingredient in diets is well known. 
 For instance, scurvy and other troubles 
 occur when they are omitted. It is well 
 to take care how they are cooked, and to 
 remember that boiling them in water boils 
 out their soluble salts. There is no in- 
 tention, it need hardly be said, to discour- 
 age fruit if the appetite calls for it. These 
 remarks are only to be taken as hints and 
 suggestions that experience has shown to 
 be useful. 
 
 (5) Fluids. — Water. Speaking gen- 
 erally, it will be found that the practice of 
 poltophagy considerably lessens the daily 
 intake of water. Economy is shown in 
 this as well as in the case of the other 
 foods. In the early stage, however, es- 
 pecially in cases of obesity, it is commonly 
 found that there are a number of sudden 
 variations in weight, as much as over four 
 pounds daily of either loss or gain. In 
 such cases the body generally retains or 
 throws off an amount of water correspond- 
 ing to the body weight lost or gained; 
 weight thus gained may be retained for 
 
TASTE AND APPETITE 83 
 
 some days. Alcohol. Cravings for alcohol 
 show a decided tendency to disappear. 
 There is in some cases an increased power 
 of appreciation for small quantities of fine 
 wines. In early cases there is a distinct 
 appetite occasionally for a restricted amount 
 of alcohol, especially when there is severe 
 exertion or excessive cold, but the desire 
 is quickly satisfied. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY 
 
 Less food is taken, the appetite is more dis- 
 criminating, much more pleasure is taken 
 in food, and meals are usually reduced in 
 number to one or two a day. As regards 
 constitutional changes produced by pol- 
 tophagy, there is marked improvement in 
 general health, — one is capable of more 
 exertion and mental work ; there is more 
 happiness and less tendency to worry. 
 These changes may be rapid or slow, vary- 
 ing with different people. They depend 
 naturally on the state of health and the age. 
 The changes are sometimes conspicuously 
 slow and progressive, recalling the growth 
 of trees, which is only noticeable after 
 long periods, and not from day to day. 
 
 Changes in the Waste (Faces) 
 
 The most striking change is found 
 in the solid waste, a marked decrease in 
 
CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY 8 J 
 
 the quantity and weight being noted. 
 There is no longer the unpleasant odour 
 that has been thought to be characteristic 
 of it. This change is not only cleanly, 
 as it seems to eliminate as well the dis- 
 agreeable odour sometimes noticed in the 
 perspiration, but, in all probability, it has 
 far-reaching results on the wear and tear 
 of the body. Thus Professor Metchnikoff 
 finds that the greatest disharmony from 
 which the body suffers is a result of the 
 putrescence that occurs in the large in- 
 testine, and in consequence there is a 
 continual stream of poisonous products 
 of decay passing into the body from the 
 alimentary canal. As we have seen, there 
 are grounds for the belief that it is these 
 products which are responsible for so many 
 diseases. But instead of removing the 
 large intestine, as Professor Metchnikoff 
 suggests, Mr. Fletcher would advise the 
 practice of poltophagy, which obviates so 
 dubious a leap into scientific " harmony." 
 To understand the terms that are used in 
 the classification of the different forms the 
 
86 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 waste assumes, it is necessary to note that 
 the large intestine is divided into a series 
 of sacculi. These sacculi are due to the 
 presence of transverse bands of muscular 
 fibres disposed at regular intervals. The 
 character of the waste that is usually 
 observed can be classified as follows : 
 
 (a) Mouldings of the sacculi of the large 
 intestine, which are of about the size of a 
 hazel nut, smooth, and occasionally faceted. 
 Their colour is occasionally dark green, 
 more frequently dark brown, less fre- 
 quently a lighter brown, but this may be 
 partly dependent upon the sort of food 
 taken. There is a clean fracture between 
 the mouldings showing a marked dryness. 
 They are usually covered with a thin 
 coating of mucus. 
 
 {b) Adherent forms of {a). The ad- 
 herent masses are obviously formed by 
 the adhesions of the sacculated mouldings ; 
 they are usually mixed with the isolated 
 form of moulding described above. Their 
 colour is generally lighter than (a), and 
 they are usually a little less hard. 
 
CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY 87 
 
 (c) Rectal mouldings with indications 
 of the sacculi mouldings. This form va- 
 ries from that of an ordinary rectal mould- 
 ing, marked with wavy lines, to distinct 
 andunmistalcable prominences showing the 
 mouldings of the sacculi of the large in- 
 testine. The colour has a tendency to be 
 lighter and the material to be of a softer 
 consistency. 
 
 (d) An ordinary unmarked rectal mould- 
 ing which has a tendency to be of a lighter 
 colour and less firm in consistency. 
 
 (e) An unformed soft motion. The 
 most common form is that of the isolated 
 mouldings of the sacculi, the other forms 
 being exceptional in connection with the 
 practice of careful poltophagy. 
 
 A very interesting variety of waste is 
 found when there is intestinal irritation 
 from any cause, when there is occasionally 
 seen a series, as it were, of the forms de- 
 scribed above, commencing with the iso- 
 lated mouldings of the sacculi and ending 
 with the soft unformed material. This 
 might be thought to indicate that the dif- 
 
88 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 ference in form merely shows the length 
 of stay in the intestinal canal. In several 
 cases the habitual length of time between 
 ingestion and egestion (shown by taking 
 charcoal) has been found to be from three 
 to five days, probably showing that the 
 material does not cause irritation to the 
 intestinal canal. There is usually not a 
 daily evacuation in the early stages of 
 poltophagy ; there may be intervals of 
 from two, to as many as three or four 
 days. 
 
 Changes in the. Large Intestine 
 
 All those who have had experience in the 
 observation of subjects in the dissecting- 
 room, etc., cannot fail to have noticed 
 the large size of the sigmoid flexure com- 
 monly found ; sometimes it is enormous. 
 In one case in which the bowel had been 
 large it is now very much smaller and 
 muscular (more distinctly felt) ; the mould- 
 ings described above can be felt in situ. 
 In this case there had been a period of 
 trouble that was due to the accumulation 
 
CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY 89 
 
 of faeces in the neighbourhood of the 
 caecum. The question naturally occurs 
 to one that in the event of a person having 
 a large sigmoid flexure there might be 
 some difficulty from atony, the bowel fail- 
 ing to deal with the diminished quantity 
 of faeces. This may also explain the long 
 intervals of time between the evacuations, 
 as noted above. The habitual state of 
 the fasces can, I think, be an indication of 
 the condition of the bowel, if not an indi- 
 cation of the state of the muscular coats ; 
 at any rate, of the size of its lumen. 
 
 Before proceeding to the actual direc- 
 tions for the practice of poltophagy, it is 
 necessary to carefully consider the follow- 
 ing points on the nature of what is called 
 body-habit and the influence of suggestion. 
 
 Considerations involving Body-habit 
 
 A faculty possessed by all living organ- 
 isms and by man to a high degree is 
 the power of adaptation to surroundings. 
 This faculty holds out brilliant hopes for 
 the future, its chief use at present being 
 
90 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 to defer death while the body is exposed 
 to conditions that cause degeneration ; in 
 the future it will be the aptitude or quality 
 of variation that can be better used to im- 
 prove the human faculties and aptitudes. 
 Those cases, for instance, that suffer from 
 chronic gout, rheumatism, or any of those 
 formidable complaints grouped under the 
 term of " slow or retarded nutrition " (see 
 Chapter 10), must not be looked on as 
 either foolish, rash, or under some pecu- 
 liarly sad dispensation, being victims of 
 circumstances that they cannot control. 
 It is becoming more and more clear that 
 these conditions are the direct conse- 
 quences of the ignorance of the science 
 of adaptation to surroundings. The ex- 
 tensive physical changes that take place 
 both externally and internally in un- 
 scientific adaptation are those that have 
 been so carefully described and classified 
 by pathologists. They vary from those 
 leading to more or less imminent death, 
 to those that, though alarming, are perma- 
 nently remediable in a short space of time. 
 
CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY 9 1 
 
 At any rate, the permanent changes are in 
 the character of scars, as indelible, but it 
 is to be hoped in many cases as harmless, 
 as those on the surface of the skin. Not 
 only are these scars present, but the pro- 
 tective apparatus of the body has evolved 
 certain habits of a metabolic character from 
 the changes induced by its reaction to the 
 bad environment. 
 
 There is nothing more thoroughly 
 understood by the members of the med- 
 ical profession than the danger of inter- 
 fering too rashly with the habits of a 
 lifetime. It is sometimes safer to remove 
 a limb than to interfere with them. It is 
 well known that in cases of alcoholism, 
 morphinism, etc., though it is clear that 
 the poison is slowly causing death, a too 
 sudden cessation may sometimes actually 
 cause death. Every one must recall in- 
 stances of those unfortunate men who, 
 having led a busy and active life, decide to 
 retire and enjoy themselves. If they can 
 substitute other activities for those that 
 were plentifully provided by their busi- 
 
92 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 ness, all well and good, — the change will 
 prove beneficial. But in the frequent 
 cases where a life of lazy ease is led, with 
 good feeding, carriage exercise, and a 
 tendency to take more alcohol than usual, 
 the prospects are different. The body is 
 deprived of the powerful stimuli of work 
 and activity, and, being too far gone to 
 adapt itself to the new conditions, it does 
 not take long to show what is the cost of 
 the ignorance of adaptation. 
 
 The reason for going into these details 
 is to explain that sooner or later a body 
 that has been obliged to adapt itself to 
 daily errors in living contracts more or 
 less permanent changes. After regenera- 
 tion is effected, it is as if a fire were put 
 out ; the seriousness of the condition de- 
 pends on how long and where the fire 
 has been burning. 
 
 The point that it is desirable to empha- 
 sise as earnestly as possible is, that if any 
 contemplate the adoption of poltophagy, 
 they should do so after consultation with 
 their medical adviser, who will probably 
 
CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY 93 
 
 put the pros and cons before them. This 
 is not said in any alarmist spirit ; it is only 
 mentioned in order to point out that there 
 are more people sitting on the edge of 
 a precipice, as it were, than is usually 
 thought to be the case. Such a danger- 
 ous seat may be occupied for a long time, 
 provided all goes on quietly without dis- 
 turbance. Then, again, we know that 
 persons who realise their peril clutch at 
 anything which even remotely promises 
 to afford them relief. Poltophagy is not 
 tp be looked upon as a certain panacea. 
 It is, however, a fundamental aptitude 
 that often accomplishes wonders of re- 
 cuperation. 
 
 Suggestion 
 
 It is only when one has had atten- 
 tion continuously directed to the study 
 of phenomena, such as taste and appetite, 
 that one begins to appreciate the extraor- 
 dinary way in which suggestions almost 
 as old as one's self continue to influence 
 daily life. It will only be when science 
 
94 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 has turned its attention to the importance 
 of environment in the daily life of children 
 especially that the world will be freed from 
 the cloud of suggestions that tyrannise 
 over it. Tyranny is the only word to 
 express any other than a positive normal 
 basis for daily life ; that is to say, when 
 false suggestions are permitted to interfere 
 with the full exercise of the body's organs. 
 A person known to the author had a 
 great difficulty with a suggestion of early 
 childhood, inculcated by an old nurse, that 
 nothing should ever be left on his plate. 
 There are grounds for thinking that the 
 habit thus acquired was as responsible as 
 any other factor for gout and rheumatism, 
 that started at twenty and went on for 
 some twenty years. Any who will ask 
 themselves for a week the following ques- 
 tions, and record the answers, will be as- 
 tonished how they leave questions dealing 
 with the food they eat to chance. The 
 first question to ask is why we eat each 
 article of food, and why we crave it ; then 
 to ascertain what precautions have been 
 
CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY 95 
 
 taken to obtain perfectly pure food of 
 good quality ; then to ask ourselves whose 
 hands it has been through in the processes 
 of cooking. It will be recognised more 
 and more in the immediate future that 
 those who are responsible for the manu- 
 facture and preparation of food should be 
 highly skilled people with a sense of re- 
 sponsibility ; it is a question of far-reaching 
 importance. The people who cater are 
 not so greatly responsible as those who 
 buy ; if there were greater care and intel- 
 ligence in the choice of foods, the pur- 
 veyors would soon adapt themselves to 
 the new needs. Nothing but the purest 
 food will, however, pass without warning 
 through the food-filter and the sentinels 
 provided by the taste buds, if they are 
 properly exercised. 
 
 The following case illustrates the danger 
 of the suggestion of enthusiastic faith in 
 expecting too rapid improvement to follow 
 the adoption of the habit of poltophagy. 
 A scientific man who was already taxing 
 his powers almost beyond endurance was 
 
Q6 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 so much impressed with the phenomena 
 he observed in those practising poltophagy 
 that he himself started immediately. For 
 three weeks everything went well. He 
 spent his renewed energy in doing still 
 more work ; he could not speak too en- 
 thusiastically of the amazing change in his 
 fitness and power of work. At the end 
 of three weeks he began to lose weight, 
 though he could ill afford to do so ; he 
 lost his power of work, and did not re- 
 cover for some eighteen months. This 
 illustrates very well that when one throws 
 the extra burden of regeneration on a body 
 that is already geared up to its utmost 
 degree of adaptation to excessive daily 
 work, it is not at all unlikely to resent the 
 change by stopping work with the most 
 obvious hints. 
 
 We ought not to have the ideas and 
 opinions of half a dozen or more people 
 intervening between us and the food our 
 bodies require, and when we have lost the 
 power of the unfailing guides of appetite 
 and taste, there is little difficulty in imag- 
 
CHANGES PRODUCED BY POLTOPHAGY gj 
 
 ining why it is that there are so many- 
 people with the incessant and ceaseless 
 troubles of chronic disease. There should 
 be no more excuse for slackness in such 
 matters than there would be in carelessly 
 running an engine. Every fact that con- 
 cerns food and feeding should be ap- 
 proached in a calm, scientific spirit, without 
 prejudices. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR THE PRACTICE OF 
 POLTOPHAGY 
 
 When a start at the practice of pol- 
 tophagy is contemplated, it is well to re- 
 member how deliberately horses and many 
 other animals habitually " chew " their 
 food. Many men and women, to a vary- 
 ing degree, are poltophagists without being 
 aware of it; they may only notice that 
 they are somewhat slower in eating than 
 other people. The next thing to remem- 
 ber is, that unless one had the necessary 
 machinery for poltophagy, — nerves, mus- 
 cles, bones, and teeth, — the process could 
 not possibly be carried out. Not only is 
 this apparatus present, but it has, in some 
 degree, been in constant use — an entirely 
 psomophagic man has not yet been met 
 with. It must be remembered that noth- 
 ing can be added to nature; that is to 
 
THE PRACTICE OF POLTOPHAGY 99 
 
 say, the numberless complicated events 
 which go to make up the phenomena of 
 mastication and deglutition have been ar- 
 ranged in their order in the history of 
 evolution. Such a process is only carried 
 on to perfection when it is entirely natu- 
 ral and is hence unconscious. If the 
 machinery has not been thoroughly used 
 for some time, it is exceedingly probable 
 that certain parts of it are out of gear. 
 It may be the salivary glands, the mus- 
 cles, or the nerves ; whatever the fault in 
 the apparatus is, it may be relied on to 
 recover sooner or later with perseverance 
 in using it as nature intends it to be used. 
 Above all, the advice to go slow and not 
 to hurry things cannot be repeated too 
 often. 
 
 It is well to realise that the precise cir- 
 cumstances of any one day are never 
 repeated even in the same individual ; so 
 that it is well to be prepared for frequent 
 changes in appetite and taste. The great 
 difficulty is to know exactly what one 
 wants, and to get the purest food cooked 
 
IOO HUMANICULTURE 
 
 in the best way. If compromises have to 
 be made, — and they generally have to 
 be, — care must be taken not to give 
 more than is absolutely needful. Change 
 for the good, to be good, had better be 
 almost as slow as the onset of the ineffi- 
 ciency that is suffered from. It is well to 
 remember, as Mr. Fletcher so wisely in- 
 sists, that the events which occur in the 
 mouth, the first three inches of the intes- 
 tinal canal, are the only part of digestion 
 over which we have any direct control ; 
 if the mouth treatment is satisfactory, and 
 favourable mental state is maintained, the 
 rest takes care of itself. There are several 
 plans which experience has shown are 
 liable to be practised by persons who wish 
 to reform their habits of eating, and these 
 methods it is necessary to discuss. 
 
 ( i ) By counting the Number of Mastica- 
 tions. A certain amount of interest has 
 been taken in the number of mastications 
 it takes in order to dispose of a mouthful 
 of food. Mr. Fletcher has voluminous 
 record of his observations in this regard. 
 
THE PRACTICE OF POLTOPHAGY IOI 
 
 It shows remarkable variations even in 
 the case of the same individual and de- 
 pends on many causes. A kangaroo will 
 give over eighty business-like mastications 
 to a mouthful of bread. In the case of 
 a patient who digested bread with diffi- 
 culty over one hundred and fifty masti- 
 cations were usually necessary. Mr. Glad- 
 stone, it must be remembered, attributed 
 his strength and endurance to masticating 
 his food, it was said, thirty to thirty-five 
 times ; as a matter of fact, when an inter- 
 ested inquirer counted the number of the 
 great statesman's jaw movements in con- 
 nection with each mouthful, from the 
 strangers' gallery at a public dinner at 
 Cambridge, he found the number was 
 usually as many as sixty or seventy. It 
 would seem, therefore, that Mr. Glad- 
 stone had only made a rough estimate, 
 and showed his habitual wisdom by not 
 counting his mastications. In the prac- 
 tice of poltophagic eating, some foods are 
 sucked up by the selective apparatus at 
 the back of the mouth before half a 
 
102 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 dozen jaw movements have taken place, 
 whereas, sometimes, more than a hundred 
 are necessary. Even in Mr. Gladstone's 
 own case, often many more than his spe- 
 cified number were required, so that the 
 Gladstone dictum can only be set down 
 as approximate. There are numbers of 
 people who, if they count their mastica- 
 tions, are so literal and conscientious in 
 following directions that they make their 
 lives a burden to themselves and their 
 fellows. Others, on the contrary, may be 
 helped by it. In nervous cases it is 
 usually harmful to direct too much atten- 
 tion to automatic acts. 
 
 (2) By Hyper-mastication. That is to 
 say, conscious retention of the food in the 
 mouth for too long a time. This is 
 effected by pressing the hinder part of the 
 tongue against the hard palate. The ob- 
 jections to this process are that it tends 
 to interfere with the natural series of 
 events, and may possibly cause a habit 
 which will be difficult to eradicate. It 
 must be remembered that one of those 
 
THE PRACTICE OF POLTOPHAGY 103 
 
 admirable adaptations which poltophagy 
 reveals is the fact that when it is attempted 
 to digest starch artificially, it is found that 
 the process is entirely interrupted as soon 
 as sugar is manufactured by the ferment. 
 This is called inhibition of the ferment 
 action, and it is invariable in the case of 
 the other ferments. Now the remarkable 
 process disclosed in poltophagy provides 
 to perfection that food-filter which Mr. 
 Fletcher describes. It at once allows the 
 soluble parts of the mixture which is 
 being treated, and which has become suffi- 
 ciently insalivated to be acceptable to the 
 body, to pass out of the mouth through 
 the lock-gates, so that all the starch should 
 be subjected to the action of the saliva 
 until the gates to the filter open of their 
 own accord. 
 
 A useful process for beginners is to 
 take one or two teaspoonfuls of flaked 
 wheat or other very dry food at the 
 commencement of meals, until the ma- 
 chinery gets into working order. The 
 really important thing to remember is 
 
104 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 that it is necessary to restrain the tongue 
 from pushing the food backwards against 
 the soft palate, or perhaps it would be 
 more accurate to say, against the hinder 
 part of the hard or bony palate. When 
 this is prevented, the poltophagic appara- 
 tus acts normally. There is one exception 
 to this, and that is when the soft palate 
 is used voluntarily to suck the food from 
 the front of the mouth ; this is not so bad 
 as bolting the food, for it does not draw 
 in lumpy food, but is the next thing to 
 it. As long, then, as the process is, as 
 it were, left to itself, it will gradually de- 
 velop the fully co-ordinated action of the 
 muscles, nerves, glands, etc., which are con- 
 cerned in the process ; although there are 
 no complete data at present, there seem to 
 be reasons why it should take a consider- 
 able time in some cases. It is interesting 
 to remember that poltophagic mastication 
 cannot take place unless the mouth is 
 closed. It is curious that the universally- 
 condemned habit of eating with the mouth 
 open should be evidence of psomophagy. 
 
THE PRACTICE OF POLTOPHAGY I OS 
 
 The Choice of Food by Appetite, etc. 
 
 It will be obvious to those who have 
 read the remarks on body-habits and 
 suggestion, that the choice of the most 
 suitable food is by no means so easy a 
 proposition as it sounds. It will be con- 
 venient if the ideal state, so far as present 
 experience goes, is briefly noted. It must 
 be remembered that in an early stage of 
 such a revolution in ideas as this reform 
 involves, with the necessarily short expe- 
 rience in its practice, the hints that are 
 advanced are rather in the nature of sug- 
 gestions than descriptions of well-ascer- 
 tained facts. To be absolutely thorough, 
 it would be wiser to prepare one's own 
 food, but to the many this is not easily 
 possible. When it is proposed to adopt 
 the habit of careful poltophagy in the case 
 of chronic disease, it is essential that the 
 individual should place himself under as 
 advantageous conditions as possible re- 
 specting climate, and above all as regards 
 food. It would be of problematical value 
 
106 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 to be in an excellent climate, where, for 
 instance, there was bad butter. The 
 most essential condition is the possibility 
 of complete rest. Sun, fresh air, especially 
 mountain air in the summer, exercise, free- 
 dom from worry, amusement, music, etc., 
 are all useful, some even necessary. 
 
 The main thing is to take the regener- 
 ative process as seriously as possible, and 
 to compromise as little as one can help. 
 There should be great patience ; the idea 
 of immediate or miraculous " cure" should 
 be replaced by a conception of the slow 
 and certain healing power of nature when 
 the environment is ideal. Nothing should 
 be forced; any proceedings designed to 
 hasten matters are more often than not the 
 cause of mere temporary stimulation, and, 
 on the whole, the cause of actual delay. 
 With regard to the question of rest, it is 
 necessary to realise that the perfection of 
 rest is an absence of any kind of impulse 
 travelling to the brain. On the other 
 hand, it is well known that absorbing 
 pleasure is frequently the most perfect 
 
THE PRACTICE OF POLTOPHAGY I07 
 
 rest, and that people's harmless pleasures 
 differ as much as they do themselves. 
 There has been an extraordinary series of 
 cures of extreme neurasthenia by Professor 
 Dejerine of Paris, who does nothing more 
 with these hitherto incurable cases than 
 keep them in bed without talking and as 
 free from the reception of impulses as 
 possible, and feed them with milk. 
 
 It is well that any wish that patients 
 should have for food should be gratified 
 with as little disturbance as possible ; 
 nothing should be forbidden, unless there 
 are the most clear and decided reasons 
 against it. When it is remembered that 
 all foods can be referred with little diffi- 
 culty (or, by means of their prominent 
 ingredient if they are composed of more 
 than one variety) into one of the four 
 groups mentioned above, the best device 
 is to use a strong preference for a certain 
 food as an indicator that will enable a 
 better choice to be made in the same 
 group. For instance, sardines, pate-de- 
 foie-gras, or cream-cheese may have sub- 
 
108 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 stituted for them food fried in butter, — 
 good fresh butter, — or cream in some ac- 
 ceptable form. Fresh fruit juices, salads, or 
 vegetables when strongly craved may pos- 
 sibly have substituted for them a solution or 
 soup of their salts. When starch is craved 
 and causes acidity, dextrinised bread must 
 be substituted for it. For cheese taken 
 in the ordinary way it is better to have it 
 finely grated and made into cheese sauce or 
 straws, or else taken as Welsh rare-bit or 
 toasted cheese ; this makes the food more 
 digestible and renders it sterile as well. 
 Such devices as these will gradually enable 
 those who are careful to be able to satisfy 
 and interpret their preferences with greater 
 accuracy and satisfaction, and at the same 
 time to have increased pleasure in eating. 
 
 It is essential, while a patient is re- 
 acquiring his power of healthy discrimina- 
 tion in the choice of foods, that these 
 should be as simple as possible, and that 
 only one article of food should, as far as 
 is practicable, be before him at a time. 
 If there is a mixture of two or more 
 
THE PRACTICE OF POLTOPHAGY 109 
 
 foods in one dish, it may be eaten in too 
 large an amount, because of the strong 
 and decided craving for one of the ingre- 
 dients it contains. It is only natural 
 that the neglect of such precautions tends 
 to postpone the healthy state, when one 
 knows definitely, and as decidedly as most 
 poltophagic people do, what he prefers. 
 
 There is one warning which must be 
 borne carefully in mind, and that is, that 
 this epicurean system does not in any 
 sense of the word imply asceticism. It is 
 founded on the same plan as that most 
 successful and practical doctrine of Epi- 
 curus, which was the scientific pursuit of 
 healthy pleasure by the practice of as 
 perfect an adaptation to our environment 
 as our knowledge allows. So that in this 
 interpretation there is no implication of 
 seeking that so-called " enlightened pleas- 
 ure of self-restraint," but it aims at the 
 scientific recovery of the fullest possible 
 exercise of the natural aptitudes and 
 functions. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM 
 
 It is now essential to define what are the 
 principles underlying what has been not 
 inappropriately called Fletcherism. As 
 previously intimated, it arose in the effort 
 of a business man to apply business prin- 
 ciples to the physiology of nutrition so as 
 to correct his own malnutrition. In this 
 he succeeded, and has preserved his life 
 long after the insurance experts had re- 
 fused to insure him. In the first place, 
 one recognises a very decided difference 
 between it and other "isms" on similar 
 subjects. The difference is that it makes 
 a claim which has never yet failed, — it 
 appeals first, last, and always to nature 
 and the science of nature. There is a de- 
 mand made for a hearing for natural scien- 
 tific adaptation, and such a claim cannot 
 fail to be substantiated in the long run. 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM III 
 
 The business of science hitherto has been 
 more to watch and understand nature than 
 to direct it. 
 
 Fletcherism, then, boldly states, on the 
 evidence of ample experimentation, that, 
 if natural aptitudes are trusted, and the 
 incomplete instructions and false teachings 
 of degenerate habits are forgotten, there is 
 little difficulty in maintaining health. In 
 other words, it is stated that the primary 
 and essential condition for scientific adap- 
 tation to environment is to secure natural 
 environment including optimum nutrition. 
 
 To prevent this from being mere theory, 
 Mr. Fletcher has had the singular distinc- 
 tion of bringing to light a fundamental 
 human faculty to which he gave the busi- 
 ness-like name of " Nature's Food Filter," 
 and which had not been previously recog- 
 nised by the organisations of medical 
 science. The explanation of the fact that 
 it should have been reserved for Mr. 
 Fletcher to do this, and that it should 
 not have been discovered by the research- 
 ers in the medical sciences, is readily seen. 
 
112 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 The medical sciences can be said to be 
 the crystallisation of the necessities of the 
 sick man. The whole apparatus has been 
 adapted to that end. It is in all prob- 
 ability due to this reason that there has 
 been a partial, and therefore an inaccurate, 
 conception of the protective physiological 
 attributes of man. The sick man has been 
 obliged of necessity to put himself more 
 or less without reserve into the hands of 
 his medical attendant, who suggests or 
 orders what he should take, etc. 
 
 The professors of the medical sciences 
 in all their manifold grades are little more 
 than disease experts. The world has 
 allocated the function of adjudicating and 
 directing the conduct of health to the 
 medical profession. This is natural, con- 
 sidering the magnificent services it has 
 rendered to mankind. Physiology was 
 good enough for doctors, and they re- 
 tailed it, as taught to them, to their 
 patients. In the general scheme of medi- 
 cine the imperfections of this important 
 branch were not conspicuous, because of 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM 113 
 
 the lack of practice in humaniculture. It 
 was then quite natural to think that the 
 current Physiology was good enough for 
 the world in general. So it has gone on 
 in perfect good faith. Physiology has 
 presented dogmatic decisions rather than 
 a system of growing, active doctrine suit- 
 able for human purposes, and has gone 
 on serenely about its business, which is the 
 discovery of the general laws of life. So 
 much is this the case that physiologists 
 honestly think themselves capable of ad- 
 judicating on purely human questions, 
 whereas in point of fact Mr. Fletcher 
 has clearly and unmistakably shown that 
 this World's Department for the Under- 
 standing of Man is out of gear and de-. 
 fective. In the first place, Physiology 
 adjudicates on purely human questions 
 without having had adequate practical 
 working experience with human phe-; 
 nomena. It has missed the whole point 
 of the natural requirement in the inges-r 
 tion of food. Physiologists have only 
 pe,qem% Jaid emphasis, on the importance 
 
114 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 of appetite ; they did not know, or did 
 not take into account, until recently that 
 the dog has a very different mastication 
 and deglutition apparatus from man. 
 Their passively accepted dogma, the Voit 
 standard of minimal nitrogen require- 
 ment for a healthy worker, has been 
 proved to be grossly incorrect. 
 
 These questions must not be looked at 
 as being in any sense of the word merely 
 academical ; far from it. A considerable 
 part of the world has handed over the 
 comprehension and direction of their natu- 
 ral defensive aptitudes to such faulty 
 doctrines as these. They order their own 
 lives by them as well as those of the sol- 
 diers, sailors, paupers, criminals, etc., not 
 to speak of the instruction of the rising 
 generation, that is given over to the direc- 
 tion of mere scholastic vanities. It is 
 scholasticism which has claimed a knowl- 
 edge greater than the evidence of the 
 perfect defensive apparatus that nature 
 has provided for all living creatures. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that Fletcherism 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM 115 
 
 deals with conceptions that involve prac- 
 tical science, the working knowledge of 
 every-day life for all human beings. This 
 is in reality only a restricted view ; in the 
 broad, philosophical point of view it enters 
 into the business of humaniculture, which 
 now has all the resources of science, its 
 trained observers and its knowledge, to 
 carry it to a practical and logical conclusion. 
 It will be admitted by those who recog- 
 nise that a case can be made out against 
 the present methods and organisation of 
 the medical sciences that it is of vital im- 
 portance to throw light on the causes 
 which underlie such a state of affairs. 
 Physiologists have been engaged tirelessly 
 and persistently, although by no means ex- 
 clusively, in the investigation of the vital 
 phenomena of those animals that can be 
 most conveniently brought into a labora- 
 tory. There is no difficulty in seeing the 
 reason, the object in experimental work 
 being to have the factors under the best 
 observation and control. This is plainly 
 impossible in the case of man, as the 
 
1 16 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 phenomena that can be accurately meas- 
 ured are few in number. Physiological 
 chemistry, the means whereby the vital 
 changes of metabolism are measured, is 
 an almost new science ; it is one of ex- 
 ceeding difficulty, that necessitates so long 
 and thorough a training that there are 
 few who are competent to hold the far 
 too few and badly paid posts that are at 
 the disposal of the laboratories. Then, as 
 it is so new a science, a vast amount of 
 work has to be done in purely scientific 
 research and the perfection of its methods 
 of measurement. 
 
 All the time, then, that science has 
 been holding out dazzling hopes of the 
 millennium, which seems to be as far 
 off as ever, men and women are dying of 
 evitable disease, millions are leading lives 
 of inefficiency, and the apparent hope- 
 lessness of things is appalling humanity. 
 At the same time a medically untrained 
 individual makes a considerable discovery, 
 even from a scientific point of view. The 
 Greeks had hardly a vestige of the science.. 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM 11 J 
 
 of which we are so rightly proud. Yet 
 Greece was able to cultivate men and 
 women who have been models of intelli- 
 gence and physical beauty for all the gen- 
 erations since their time. 
 
 There are always two ways of " doing 
 things " : the first is to do what is desired 
 first, and then to explain how it was done ; 
 the other way is to find out how first 
 and do it afterwards. It would be difficult 
 to say which method has been most fertile 
 in results ; it depends entirely on the sub- 
 ject to which the method is applied ; but 
 in the case of humaniculture, surely there 
 can be no doubt, as there are necessarily 
 human beings always with us in all stages 
 of their development, that rather than 
 wait we ought " to do " first, and use all 
 the magnificent resources of science to 
 improve our practice. 
 
 Hopes have been eagerly turned to the 
 grand organisations of medicine for the 
 wisdom that is to secure a more rapid 
 progress of the world. Mr. Fletcher has 
 demonstrated, it would appear, that in the 
 
Il8 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 line of his special inquiry there is an 
 evident reason for the want of output 
 of the laboratories, — a lack of connec- 
 tion between detached details of knowl- 
 edge. There is a vital necessity for a 
 complete equipment in order to give man 
 the knowledge needed to cope with his 
 complex surroundings. Wild animals 
 have this equipment assured them by 
 hereditary aptitudes and training which 
 enable them to avoid their enemies and 
 obtain food. Without this knowledge of 
 making the very best of things, or, in 
 other words, of scientifically adapting 
 themselves to their environment, the 
 wild animals would certainly die. They 
 must always be at " concert pitch," they 
 must keep themselves in the "pink of 
 condition," and must be ready at any 
 moment to use all their resources and 
 strength to escape from their enemies or 
 to capture their prey. Therefore, other 
 things being equal, the unfittest or weak- 
 est among animals are those who are least 
 instructed and consequently unable to per- 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM IIQ 
 
 fectly adapt themselves to their emergen- 
 cies. Surely the lack of an equivalent 
 instruction in the case of many unfortu- 
 nate human beings is forgotten by those 
 who say that "the unfit, the (so-called) 
 have-to-be-bad, the criminal, the diseased, 
 the mentally unsound, and the many other 
 varieties of the degenerate, ought to be 
 killed or allowed to die." It has actually 
 been called the " foolish sentimentality 
 of the age " that keeps them alive, to the 
 world's detriment. Only a man as judi- 
 cial and as experienced as Mr. Z. R. 
 Brockway would be entitled to promul- 
 gate such an opinion as this, and he 
 stoutly protests against any such dis- 
 crediting of nature. He is another of 
 those who do first and explain after- 
 wards, instead of formulating pessimistic 
 theories in the seclusion of studies and 
 laboratories. In the place of the bar- 
 barous and uneconomical methods of 
 punishment in common use he reformed 
 criminals by using nature's method, both 
 of growth and regeneration (i. e. growth 
 
120 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 from degeneration), which is, to supply 
 any needed instruction. 
 
 In a similar manner Dr. Barnardo took 
 the most unpromising material (from an 
 hereditary point of view) that could be 
 imagined, and by means of instruction 
 has been able to send an army of more 
 than twenty thousand new citizens to 
 Canada. Of these, ninety-eight per cent 
 have done well. This is a result that 
 one can recommend to those who are 
 concerning themselves with the new sci- 
 ence Eugenics ; most universities would 
 be proud of as much success. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle 
 Creek, in treating some forty adopted 
 children, taken from most unfortunate 
 early environment, during about nineteen 
 years, have had no failures. Their waifs 
 have been taken into their family life 
 under their own roof and no feeling of 
 " adoption " has been allowed to prevail. 
 This would show an advantage in favour 
 of family care as opposed to institutional 
 care. 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM 121 
 
 Another instance of " doing things " 
 is afforded by Mr. Patterson, president 
 of the National Cash Register Company 
 of Dayton, Ohio, who, when he was in- 
 vestigating the partly known factors of 
 manufacturing organisations, turned his 
 attention to the development of the minds 
 and bodies of his employees, and thus, 
 by making full use of " human-wealth," 
 made the remarkable success that is known 
 all over the world. Many other in- 
 stances could be quoted of the applica- 
 tion of this principle of " doing things," 
 but the preceding suffice for the purpose 
 of illustration. 
 
 What does this distinction between 
 " doing things " (action) and " thinking 
 things " without the reasonable prediction 
 of successful action really amount to ? 
 Practically these processes of induction, 
 of deduction, and action are represented 
 in the daily mental and physical activities 
 of all human beings. The profession of 
 thinking (philosophers), of thinking and 
 measuring (men of science), and those 
 
122 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 who " do things" (men of affairs or action) 
 are part of the cosmic device for the divi- 
 sion of labour. In point of fact these 
 processes are inseparable from one an- 
 other ; perfect action is the end or proof 
 of perfect induction or deduction, and is 
 incontestably the goal of science. 
 
 The plan that is adopted by men of 
 action, the plan that has been elaborated 
 in the material progress of the United 
 States, is known in Europe as the " Amer- 
 ican method." This device merits the 
 distinction of being added to the well- 
 tried philosophical processes of " induc- 
 tion " and " deduction," with the title of 
 production. The first essential is to know 
 clearly what is wanted, and then to keep 
 it constantly in mind ; whether it be that 
 of the American nation to dig the Panama 
 Canal, that of Mr. Rockefeller to acquire 
 and distribute oil, or to organise an ap- 
 paratus for acquiring and distributing the 
 science of humaniculture, it makes no 
 difference to the method that should be 
 employed. It is necessary that the object 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM 1 23 
 
 or end should possess the minds and 
 govern the activities of the entire organi- 
 sation to the exclusion of everything else, 
 at any rate during business hours. This 
 sounds an unnecessary thing to say, but 
 in a practical business attempt at humani- 
 culture there would not be either the time 
 or the necessity to investigate the phe- 
 nomena shown by the ganglia of the frog's 
 heart, for instance, unless there was noth- 
 ing more important on hand. The next 
 step is to use that essential and important 
 device the Card-Index System, or, as it 
 might be called, the system of the auto- 
 matic philosophy of men of action. Those 
 who are masters of the device have, by 
 its means, presented to their minds in an 
 accessible and intelligible form the scheme 
 of work necessary for the accomplishment 
 of their purpose. In other words, one is 
 able to appreciate what are the "cold 
 facts " of the proposition. The factors 
 that are contributory to the result to be 
 attained by production are then carefully 
 enumerated, they are next investigated in 
 
124 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 the degree and order of their importance, 
 and the knowledge that has already been 
 acquired about them is arranged and 
 classified for convenient reference. This 
 once accomplished, the obstacles reveal 
 themselves and have to be overcome. It 
 can then be seen what requires the most 
 concentrated effort. The importance of 
 and the order in which the experiments 
 are undertaken are judged solely in the 
 degree that they will influence the success 
 of the result that is aimed at, and for no 
 other reason whatever. The modern motor- 
 car was made first in a very crude form 
 and improved by practice, without aca- 
 demic science helping any more than by 
 the assurance that it "would not work." 
 Edison " does things " first and explains 
 them afterwards. In other words, his re- 
 searches are not only for the purpose of 
 measurement (induction) alone, but for 
 production. Therefore, if anything is to 
 be done in humaniculture, it must be done 
 on Greek lines, or on "American business 
 methods," which are classical in their prac- 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF FLETCHERISM 125 
 
 ticality. It is not so much a question for 
 individuals, but for the heads of great 
 organisations and for a nation. Civilisa- 
 tion cannot be said to be run on the lines 
 of practical humaniculture ; one has only 
 to contemplate the sorry crop of degen- 
 erates that form so prominent a feature 
 of our large cities to realise its absence. 
 There is no one person that is responsible 
 for this lack of fundamental practicality 
 more than another; we are all of us re- 
 sponsible. It is every one's business to 
 see to it that concerted and co-operative 
 humaniculture is started without delay, 
 and carried through, not only with the 
 philosophical processes of induction and 
 deduction, but as well with the assured 
 success of the American method of 
 ■production. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF 
 MEDICAL DOCTRINES 
 
 The origin and progress of the medical 
 sciences have been due to the action of 
 many forces. Like all other human or- 
 ganisations, these departments had their 
 birth and growth in obedience to men's 
 needs. The mother-force, it is clear, has 
 been, and continues to be, the urgent 
 need of the sick man to be cured of his 
 disease. Patients have always been cred- 
 ulous and subject to suggestion, so that 
 faith-cures of the most imposing dimen- 
 sions and variety have been continually 
 provided for them. Fortunately, as people 
 have shown a growing predilection for the 
 services of the Medical Profession, means 
 have been provided for the slow and 
 laborious acquisition of positive knowl- 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 127 
 
 edge at centres of learning. It must be 
 borne in mind that an art such as Medi- 
 cine, whatever may have been the poverty 
 of its knowledge at the time of the emer- 
 gency, has always been obliged to act 
 immediately, so that its prominent feature 
 has been that of a craft founded on a 
 growing accumulation of practical expe- 
 rience in the treatment of disease. The 
 sum of the practice agreed on by the 
 majority has from time to time been organ- 
 ised under the domination of certain doc- 
 trines. These dominant ideals of prac- 
 tice can be conveniently grouped under 
 the following heads : 
 
 (1) The Principles and Practice of Hu- 
 maniculture. (Classical Greek.) 
 
 (2) The Acquisition of Positive Knowl- 
 edge. (Science.) 
 
 (3) The Expectant or Natural Plan of 
 Treatment. (Rational : Eclectic.) 
 
 (4) Empiricism, or the "Cure" Idea. 
 (Orthodox.) 
 
 (5) Dogmatic and Scholastic Doctrines. 
 (Schools.) 
 
128 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 (6) The Ideals of Theocratic Medicine. 
 (Faith Cures of many sorts.) 
 
 ( i ) The Principles and Practice of 
 Humaniculture 
 
 It is interesting to record that in one 
 direction at least the ancients excelled in 
 the successful application of knowledge. 
 Humaniculture, or the science of man's 
 adaptation to his surroundings, can be said 
 to have begun and to have ended with 
 Greek civilisation. The predominant ideal 
 in this as in other great national move- 
 ments was closely associated with religion. 
 The gods and goddesses of the Greeks 
 were nothing more than conceptions of 
 magnificent men and women. Their calm 
 and settled belief in the grandeur and 
 perfectibility of human nature was inborn 
 and fostered by religious observances. 
 Their daily life, too, was necessarily subor- 
 dinated to these enlightened ideals. Hu- 
 maniculture was with them an applied 
 science in the highest sense of the word, 
 and one that was carried out with the 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 29 
 
 active co-operation and close attention of 
 the foremost citizens. The lives of the 
 young were arranged so as to be an effec- 
 tive training for the great religious festi- 
 vals, such as the Olympian games. The 
 successful competitors received distinctions 
 and many privileges, — one being to have 
 their bodies sculptured so as to serve as 
 permanent records of their feats and phys- 
 ical beauty. The Greeks, too, were practi- 
 cal psychologists. There were inspectors 
 appointed for the object of censoring the 
 tales that were told to the young, in order 
 that no bad impressions should be im- 
 parted to them. Mothers were so keenly 
 alive to the danger of harmful sugges- 
 tions in youth, that they forbade their chil- 
 dren associating with slaves and servants. 
 Choral dances, music, literature, philoso- 
 phy, rhetoric, gymnastics, etc., were the 
 subjects of both religious and secular 
 education. The poor received suitable 
 technical education, as it was recognised 
 to be important to have an early initiation 
 into the chosen life-work. None of their 
 9 
 
130 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 philosophers were too great to occupy 
 themselves with the vital questions of 
 education. Thus Aristotle condemned 
 the laws that were promulgated to restrain 
 children from shouting and making those 
 noises that children still enjoy. Aristotle 
 is universally acknowledged to be the 
 greatest intellectual giant in the history 
 of the world, yet he did not think it 
 derogatory to point out that such restraint 
 was in the highest degree injurious ; that 
 the exercise to the lungs was peculiarly 
 beneficial ; in short, that it was a kind of 
 gymnastics, and by the last suggestion he 
 touched the Greeks in their sensitive 
 spot, gymnastics being looked on as relig- 
 ious exercises. They were also most care- 
 ful in all questions of diet. It would be 
 easy to extend this subject much further, 
 but enough has been said to draw atten- 
 tion to the extraordinary success of their 
 practice. 
 
 It is, however, necessary to refer briefly 
 to the doctrines of Epicurus, and to note 
 the fact that the present revival of the 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 131 
 
 interest in humaniculture under the name 
 of Fletcherism is epicurean in tendency. 
 Epicurus may be said to have been the 
 first to formulate clearly the conceptions 
 of the utmost simplicity in diet, a properly 
 balanced nutrition, with mental calm and 
 happiness. Above all, he realised and 
 taught that health must be attained and 
 maintained in order to secure the latter. 
 Epicurus may be said to illustrate the 
 peculiarly practical character of Greek 
 philosophers ; they practised what they 
 preached, all of them taking the greatest 
 interest in what we now call the common- 
 places of life. They used all the resources 
 of their highly cultivated reasoning and 
 learning in the improvement of their prac- 
 tice. For instance, had the Greeks dis- 
 covered the circulation of the blood, it 
 is inconceivable that they would have 
 been induced to make it the occasion of 
 indiscriminate bleeding, as did a later civil- 
 isation. They would have been saved by 
 their empirical and successful practice in 
 humaniculture. 
 
132 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 The sayings of Epicurus which have 
 come down to us from various sources 
 are most interesting and instructive, and 
 decidedly worthy of repetition. " Nature 
 ought to be the sole judge of what is con- 
 formable to nature." " Whenever nature 
 acts without calculation and without rea- 
 soning, it cannot make a mistake ; where 
 there is no reasoning, there is no error ; 
 or, with all human beings the object that 
 nature pursues is pleasure, there is here 
 actually the natural object of life for all 
 beings. It ought to be the highest aim 
 of man ; the latter will do by reflection 
 what the animals do by instinct, — he will 
 teach nature to lead his reason." "We 
 ought," says Epicurus, " to be on our 
 guard against any dishes which, though we 
 may be eagerly desirous of them before- 
 hand, yet leave no sense of gratitude behind 
 them after we have enjoyed them." " Epi- 
 curus the Gargettian," writes another au- 
 thor, " cried aloud and said : c To whom a 
 little is not enough, nothing is enough. 
 Give me a barley cake, and I am ready to 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 33 
 
 vie with Zeus in happiness.' " A great deal 
 more might be written about Epicurus, 
 who may be said to be, more than any 
 other, the philosophical exponent of the 
 ideals of the future; that future where 
 the highest art and the most perfect science 
 will be that of the development of man's 
 faculties and aptitudes to a degree of 
 which Greek civilisation will afford an in- 
 dication instead of an unattainable ideal. 
 
 (2) The Acquisition of Positive Knowledge 
 
 The supreme value of positive knowl- 
 edge is that it prevents the fruits of 
 successful practice being lost. Humani- 
 culture was born and grew under a heroic 
 theocratic ideal into the fine flower of 
 Greek civilisation, but in the dark days 
 of the period before the Renaissance, the 
 world sank to terrible depths under de- 
 grading theocratic tyranny that still exerts 
 its sinister influence on some of the con- 
 ceptions of modern life. If there had 
 been more positive knowledge, it is un- 
 thinkable that all that was good in Greek 
 
134 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 civilisation would have been lost during 
 the Dark. Ages. 
 
 The fine product of Greek intellect 
 served as sufficient intellectual food for 
 the world till the sixteenth century. In 
 1527 that erratic genius Paracelsus burnt 
 before his astonished audience the almost 
 sacred writings of Galen and Avicennus. 
 Whatever may be said of his amazing 
 character, he had the distinction of leading 
 his contemporaries from the fogs of dog- 
 matic authority to the daylight of obser- 
 vation and experiment. It is difficult to 
 realise the protean activity of folly, igno- 
 rance, and authority in preventing the 
 progress of the accumulation of positive 
 knowledge. From Paracelsus onwards 
 science grew by stages that were amazingly 
 slow at first. For instance, the world 
 paid for Harvey's great discovery by be- 
 ing bled for three hundred years. The 
 increase of knowledge might be almost 
 said to be insignificant till the scientific 
 period of the world's history that com- 
 menced in the middle of the last century. 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 135 
 
 (3) The Expectant or Natural Plan of 
 Treatment 
 
 It is far easier to act when swayed by 
 imaginary fears, or when under the influ- 
 ence of systems or doctrines that suppress 
 initiative and diminish responsibility, than 
 to wait till careful and skilled observation 
 shows that there is real need for action. 
 The latter plan has at its foundation a 
 trust in the innate tendency of the body 
 to recover from the worst of its diseases 
 when it has the necessary rest. Its basic 
 idea has been to look on symptoms as the 
 natural indications of the means that the 
 body adopts in the course of recovery. 
 These ideals have always numbered among 
 their adherents the master minds of medi- 
 cine. Hippocrates — the father of medi- 
 cine as he is called — was the first hygienist. 
 He wrote a treatise on the influence of en- 
 vironment on health and disease, his many 
 travels enabling him to make a number 
 of acute and valuable observations. He it 
 was who first pointed out that the body was 
 
136 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 not a system of warring republics, but that 
 it was an entity where action was con- 
 current and co-operative, the affection of 
 one part invariably communicating itself 
 to others. 
 
 Asclepiades, a physician fresh from the 
 famous school of Alexandria, introduced 
 the enlightened ideals of Epicurus into 
 medical practice in Rome. He founded 
 a school of medicine whose practitioners 
 were known as methodists. The theo- 
 retical foundation of their belief was that 
 the body was composed of molecules in 
 constant movement, illness resulting from 
 a relaxation or retarding of this movement. 
 Their practice, which, after all, is the im- 
 portant thing, consisted in making use of 
 all the resources of an enlightened hygiene. 
 They used massage, hydrotherapy, gradu- 
 ated exercises, and depended largely on a 
 vegetable and fruit diet. They distrusted 
 drugs because they involved the introduc- 
 tion of noxious substances into the body, 
 thereby weakening the stomach and inter- 
 fering with digestion, thus depriving the 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 37 
 
 body of its most potent means of recovery. 
 Lucretius gave the help of his poetic genius 
 to this school, which for generations af- 
 forded the ideals governing medical prac- 
 tice in Rome. 
 
 The change for the worse in later days 
 is strikingly illustrated by the differences 
 in the treatment of Augustus Caesar and 
 Louis XIV. After his expedition into 
 Spain, Augustus Caesar had an obstinate 
 attack of inflammation of the liver which 
 was treated by hot baths and sweating 
 without success. He recovered when this 
 treatment was changed to cold baths and 
 an exclusively vegetable diet, especially 
 lettuce. The success of this treatment 
 made the reputation, we are told, of a 
 young physician of twenty-five. Louis 
 XIV., however, lived in more strenuous 
 times. We are informed in a remarkable 
 document, " The Diary of the Health of 
 Louis XIV.," that in the short space of 
 one year he took two hundred and fifteen 
 different medicines, two hundred and 
 twelve enemata, and that he was bled no 
 
1 3 8 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 less than forty-seven times. A kindly 
 historian would surely take such adverse 
 circumstances into consideration when he 
 gave his judicial opinions on the acts of 
 such unfortunate monarchs. 
 
 The great name of Sydenham, one of the 
 most prominent figures in the history of 
 medicine, can be cited as another example 
 of the reaction against ignorant interference 
 and empiricism. Stahl too, the professor 
 of medicine at Halle, wrote a book on 
 "The Art of Healing by Expectation." 
 The most picturesque of the opponents 
 of interference was one Gedeon Harvey, 
 the physician of Charles II. He waged 
 an incessant warfare against his colleagues, 
 even going so far as to classify them under 
 the headings of their favourite remedies, 
 "Iron," "Asses' Milk," "Quinine," "Min- 
 eral Waters," " Purgatives," " Bleeding." 
 He spared no one, even recommending the 
 substitution of the cook for the apothecary 
 in his famous treatise on " The Vanity of 
 the Philosophy of Medicine." He wrote 
 the first book of popular medicine because 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 39 
 
 he thought that there was no reason that 
 men should not prevent their diseases by 
 domestic hygiene. 
 
 (4) Empiricism, or the " Cure "Idea 
 
 Empiricism can be defined as the use of 
 the means of cure which have succeeded 
 in similar or apparently similar cases. In 
 its most favourable interpretation it can 
 be looked on as the cradle of medicine, 
 the accumulation of the experience of 
 fellow-craftsmen. In ancient Egypt the 
 ingenious physicians divided the body into 
 a number of squares and regions, medical 
 etiquette prescribing that none but the 
 specialist practising in the particular square 
 or region affected should be called in. 
 The joy of these ancient practitioners in a 
 case of acute rheumatism must have been 
 subdued but acute. In old Rome it was 
 customary to record any remarkable cure 
 in the temples for future use. When a 
 sufferer had survived a course of temple 
 treatment, he was laid outside his door to 
 solicit the advice of the passers-by. This 
 
140 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 plan would be popular even now with the 
 amateur physicians, who have substituted 
 patent preparations for the temple pre- 
 scriptions, and are always ready gratui- 
 tously to advise their suffering friends. 
 
 There are few things, from precious 
 stones and metals to parts of animals, — 
 the more out of the way the better, — that 
 have not been laid under contribution for 
 the attempted cure of disease. Polyphar- 
 macy, or, as an American picturesquely 
 called it, " shot-gun prescriptions," was 
 only abandoned a comparatively • short 
 time ago. In these days the profane and 
 unbelieving look askance at the never- 
 ending series of new drugs with unpro- 
 nounceable names that are poured out 
 and ground out by Teutonic industry. 
 
 Medicine has always provided an irre- 
 sistible field for the activities of amateur 
 physicians. One of the most interesting 
 instances is the work written by Cato, the 
 stern old Roman. He thought that cab- 
 bages were digested more easily than any 
 other vegetable. They made a valuable 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 141 
 
 tonic in vinegar. If you want to eat or 
 drink copiously when you are invited to 
 dinner, Cato advises you to take some 
 cabbage in vinegar beforehand. When 
 you have finished your repast and you 
 want to eat again, it is sufficient to take 
 about five leaves to have the illusion that 
 you have not eaten for twenty-four hours. 
 Cabbage is just as good externally as in- 
 ternally, being useful for trouble of the 
 heart, liver, teeth, eyes, lungs, colic, cancer, 
 abscess, and nasal polypi. After this, one 
 is not astonished to know that it is neces- 
 sary to have considerable skill to make 
 and administer the preparations that he 
 gives in his book. Above all, it was nec- 
 essary to remember to refrain from giving 
 cabbages to slaves, — it made them eat too 
 much. 
 
 (5) Dogmatic and Scholastic Doctrines 
 
 Doctrines in the medicinal sciences may 
 be regarded as a kind of intellectual con- 
 venience. With the science of the past 
 as a foundation, medical practitioners con- 
 
142 HUMANI CULTURE 
 
 structed the edifice of the day which re- 
 mained till it was too small to house the 
 newest contributions to positive knowl- 
 edge. There is little doubt that they 
 afforded some sort of discipline for the 
 unthinking mind of the average mediaeval 
 physician, and might have rendered him a 
 little less dangerous to the long-suffering 
 patient. Doctrines have always started 
 from a fixed point, an unquestioned and 
 unquestionable idea. This fixed point 
 was borrowed from tradition, revelation, 
 conventional or arbitrary authority, or was 
 based on some positive knowledge that 
 often had nothing to do with the applica- 
 tion that was made of it. The great dis- 
 advantage of such cramping ideals was 
 that it was looked on as positively im- 
 pious to question them. Thus Galen was 
 able to construct a system from the 
 science, etc., of the past which enjoyed an 
 unquestioned authority that lasted for no 
 less than fourteen centuries. Till the end 
 of the seventeenth century no one was 
 allowed to see anything without referring 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES I43 
 
 to what Galen had seen, or to do any- 
 thing without ascertaining whether Galen 
 approved. The most wonderful example 
 of the influence of suggestion on men's 
 minds was the extraordinary effect of the 
 discovery of the circulation of the blood 
 by Harvey. This important and revolu- 
 tionary discovery became the foundation 
 of the really terrible doctrine of indis- 
 criminate bleeding, under which, as before 
 stated, mankind was treated for some three 
 hundred years. In short, then, medical 
 doctrines are an expression of that funda- 
 mental tendency of the human mind to 
 come to some sort of agreement on any 
 bases whatever, no matter how imperfect, 
 and violently to persecute those who dis- 
 agree with the accepted ideals. 
 
 (6) The Ideals of 'theocratic Medicine 
 
 The practice of medicine, it is well 
 known, has always been closely associated 
 with the priesthood. One has only to 
 recall the Egyptian and Grecian priests, 
 
144 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 or to remember the sanitary laws and 
 regulations of Moses who was trained by 
 the Egyptian priesthood. The gratitude 
 of patients and their keenness to recover 
 their health provided so profitable an 
 asset that there were many bitter fights 
 to retain medicine as a priestly craft. It 
 was their most valuable monopoly, so it 
 is not to be wondered at that Esculapius 
 himself was put to death for resuscitating 
 an individual that the priests had pro- 
 nounced to be defunct. To Hippocrates 
 they were only scandalous, accusing him 
 of robbing the temples of their prescrip- 
 tions and then destroying them. The 
 fundamental theories of theocratic ideals 
 are two : the first, that disease is a pun- 
 ishment for disobedience to the gods, and 
 the other more subtle and serious concep- 
 tion, that the body is evil, or that it is the 
 evil envelope of the soul. The former 
 idea served the useful and innocent pur- 
 pose of keeping the faithful regular with 
 their subscriptions. The latter on the 
 contrary has been and is one of the most 
 
ORIGIN OF MEDICAL DOCTRINES 145 
 
 widely and deeply harmful ideas that has 
 martyrised humanity. Nothing but the 
 vivid impression produced by a visit to 
 the examples of pre-Renaissance art in the 
 European galleries, can enable one to 
 form an idea of the dire effects of this 
 doctrine. There one finds an endless 
 procession of starved, deformed, and anas- 
 mic figures showing more eloquently than 
 words how far this pernicious notion had 
 affected life and ideals. In this period 
 our matter-of-fact ancestors showed how 
 literal they were in the interpretation of 
 the dominant doctrines. The patients 
 were looked on as possessing wicked 
 bodies that required punishment by way 
 of treatment. They were starved, put into 
 the dark, emptied of blood and filled 
 with water : in short, they were treated 
 with all the barbarities that perverted 
 ingenuity could suggest. In the case 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, dogma 
 fought with every available weapon to 
 impede the acquisition of positive knowl- 
 edge. It assumed absolute authority over 
 
 10 
 
146 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 men's minds. In those unhappy Middle 
 Ages no one could think for himself unless 
 his head was covered with a mitre. The 
 aim of dogma was to dominate nature, 
 thought, and freedom. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE APPARATUS OF THE MEDICAL 
 SCIENCES 
 
 Hospitals and laboratories can be looked 
 on as the apparatus devised by the prac- 
 titioners of the medical sciences to carry 
 on their work with the conveniences of 
 association. They are the theatres of 
 active progress in the acquisition and ap- 
 plication of the positive knowledge of 
 disease. It is most essential to examine 
 their aims and constitution so as to dis- 
 cover which of the three branches of 
 human biological research they are con- 
 cerned with. At present the attention 
 of the world is directed far too much 
 towards hospitals that are clearly con- 
 cerned with the third class of remedies, 
 that of alleviation. Sanatoria are the 
 commencements of the practical experi- 
 ence in the second class, regeneration. 
 
148 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 Laboratories are primarily concerned with 
 the research side of the alleviation of 
 disease, and secondarily with research in 
 the general phenomena of life that apper- 
 tain to all three classes. 
 
 The Hospitals. 
 
 Hospitals are used primarily for the 
 convenient treatment of the sick poor, and 
 secondly to provide material for the edu- 
 cation of medical students. They are also 
 the theatre of the progress in the practical 
 application of the medical sciences. There 
 can be no doubt that they are the finest 
 symbol of the enlightened and willing 
 service of man that our civilisation affords. 
 But the influence on thought of an habit- 
 ual environment that is unhealthy, and 
 an habitual intellectual exercise that is de- 
 pressing, can be said to control almost 
 completely the point of view from which 
 general questions, such as regeneration 
 and humaniculture, are approached. One 
 must not forget in the contemplation of 
 the dazzling progress of the medical scji* 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 149 
 
 ences that hospitals necessarily exert a 
 strong pessimistic influence on the minds 
 of medical officers who are the leaders 
 of thought in the larger human ques- 
 tions. What does a medical man see in 
 a hospital, and what is the nature of his 
 work ? The typical patient when admitted 
 is washed, put into a clean nightshirt, and 
 is seen in a bed that resembles other beds 
 in everything else but its number. The 
 patient really loses his individuality as a 
 soldier does in the ranks. He is known 
 while in the bed by his number, or he 
 may be distinguished by his disease ; so 
 much so that a patient is always very 
 proud of being a rare case. The close and 
 careful attention it brings him is a com- 
 forting distinction in the ward. It is no 
 more than a truism to say that medicine 
 and surgery have been constructed from 
 the phenomena presented by this patient 
 in a bed. It may be said that the atten- 
 tion of the progressive minds and activities 
 in medicine has been practically entirely 
 confined to the study of diseases which are 
 
I S O HUM ANICULTURE 
 
 the termination of whole series of uncon- 
 sidered and unrecognised events that go to 
 make up the tragic life-history of so many 
 of our fellow creatures. The insidious 
 commencements of disease, from the na- 
 ture of things, are not present among the 
 phenomena which it is the duty of the 
 medical officers to observe and treat. 
 This is also shown by the branches into 
 which the medical sciences have naturally 
 divided themselves. There is clinical 
 medicine and surgery, the study of the 
 phenomena seen at the bedside ; surgery 
 and therapeutics, all comprised under the 
 term " treatment " ; and pathology, the 
 study of the phenomena presented by 
 the dead body. In all of these there 
 has been magnificent performance. They 
 have all reached a high state of excellence 
 that compares most favourably with any 
 other branch of human activity. 
 
 But what is actually done for the study 
 of the causation of disease? When the 
 patient is admitted his evidence is taken 
 as to his family history, his personal his- 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 151 
 
 tory, and the history of his disease. The 
 evidence is that of an unskilled observer 
 who can rarely associate events that con- 
 nect his disease with its onset. Very few 
 patients, it is well known in practice, 
 can be depended on to give accurate in- 
 formation even about the beginnings of a 
 tumour of the most evident dimensions. 
 It is, however, this note-taking, inaccurate 
 and unscientific as it must needs be, that 
 is responsible for many of the preventive 
 measures taken in the case of the more 
 evident causes of disease that can be dealt 
 with by legal means. The value of the 
 statements of an unskilled observer who 
 has, he knows not how, been defeated in 
 the battle of life, cannot be of anything 
 approaching the accuracy of the evidence 
 that so important a subject requires. It 
 may have been his work or his unhygi- 
 enic home, or both, that are responsible. 
 Whatever it is, it is naturally impossible 
 for the physicians to have anything but 
 the vaguest and most general ideas on the 
 subject. Medical officers of hospitals, 
 
152 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 then, cannot have experience and con- 
 sequently the knowledge of either re- 
 generation (the recovery of optimum 
 health) or humaniculture (the science of 
 the optimum adaptation to environment, 
 which prevents disease). No one who is 
 familiar with the hard work and unselfish 
 lives led by the more active and influential 
 members of the medical profession in 
 hospitals will doubt that their exhausting 
 and beneficent work absorbs their entire 
 energies and leaves them little or no time 
 for such questions. 
 
 The history of the treatment of con- 
 sumption illustrates very well the result 
 of the limited field of observation im- 
 posed by the necessary conditions of hos- 
 pital practice. Patients were first of all 
 treated in hospital wards ; miles of notes 
 were written in the usual painstaking way, 
 recording the history of the patient and of 
 his disease, together with the result of his 
 treatment. A vast number of observa- 
 tions were made in the post-mortem room. 
 We all know now that consumption ought 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 153 
 
 not to be treated in a closed ward or 
 room, and that country air, etc., are neces- 
 sary. It may be asked, " What is the 
 present value of the extensive literature on 
 the cure of consumption, of the work of 
 doctors and nurses, of the lives that were 
 lost or shortened through malpractice ? 
 Is it not more than possible that the same 
 experience is being repeated with other 
 diseases ? " 
 
 The problem now has shifted its ground 
 from how to cure a man in a bed in a hos- 
 pital to the cure of a man in a bed in a 
 sanatorium. The real problem still re- 
 mains : how to prevent a man in a home 
 from acquiring the disease? The reason 
 for the delay in the recognition of the best 
 means for the treatment of consumption 
 was due to the limited scope for experi- 
 ment possessed by the medical officers of 
 hospitals. The question naturally occurs 
 to one : how did it occur that the real facts 
 were not pointed out to the public ? This 
 is due to the fact that the medical officers' 
 views tend to be constricted by the nature 
 
154 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 of their habitual occupation, which must 
 be to devise the best means of treating 
 patients in hospitals. Even if they had 
 had more enlightened views there would 
 not have been the evidence of successful 
 practice to justify a sufficiently strong in- 
 sistence on them. The revolution of 
 thought that has resulted from the new 
 ideas of consumption would certainly have 
 occurred sooner if the activities of the 
 medical officers had not been limited by 
 the four walls of a hospital. 
 
 The defects of hospitals are to be found 
 in the insufficiency of their resources ; they 
 are, in short, "the defects of the apparatus." 
 They are alleviative in their scope, and 
 lack opportunities in the experience and 
 observation in the commencements of dis- 
 ease. Many important matters become 
 administrative and subordinated to the 
 necessities of wholesale treatment and 
 popular prejudice. In the largest hospital 
 in one of the capitals of Europe thirty or 
 forty children between the ages of three 
 and six were allowed beer only with their 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 155 
 
 midday repast, yet it is certain that not 
 one of the medical officers of the staff 
 would have defended such a practice. 
 
 Mr. Timothy Holmes, late Surgeon to 
 St. George's Hospital in London, said 
 truly that one of the most needful reforms 
 in London was the necessity for the amal- 
 gamation of the dispensaries, workhouses, 
 public health hospitals, and the general 
 hospitals, so that they should all be read- 
 ily available for purposes of study and 
 teaching. He suggested that the general 
 hospitals could act as consultative bodies 
 to the other institutions. A plan such as 
 this would be the only means that could 
 give the wide scope for observation that 
 the study of the causes of disease re- 
 quires. Most disease is evitable ; if there 
 were wider scope for dealing with it at its 
 roots and origins, the means for preven- 
 tion would soon be devised. There are 
 many patients admitted to hospitals at the 
 present time as the result of a failure of 
 the body, to adapt itself to a faulty envi- 
 ronment ; the patient is too probably only 
 
I S 6 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 just sufficiently " cured " to enable him to 
 have another " round " with his environ- 
 ment, to be defeated again and again, and 
 to be patched up, till finally he dies and 
 gives up a struggle, the end of which 
 was assured from the start. There are 
 many such cases as these under present 
 circumstances which are nothing less than 
 an avoidable charge on society, and on 
 the work of the personnel of the hos- 
 pitals. It is apt to become a sort of 
 vicious circle that harms every one con- 
 cerned. It is, however, inevitable so long 
 as the problem is not dealt with as a 
 whole. The question that will have to 
 be decided sooner or later is whether dis- 
 ease, its prevention and its treatment, is 
 not the concern and responsibility of the 
 entire community. It must be obvious 
 that when citizens are either inefficient or 
 disabled, they are directly or indirectly a 
 burden on society. It is, then, if this is 
 granted, the business of society to see to 
 it that all disease should be alleviated or 
 prevented in the best possible way. This 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 1 57 
 
 cannot be attained unless the whole ad- 
 ministration of health in its widest sense 
 is the concern of the community and the 
 medical officers are paid by the commu- 
 nity. If poor-law, dispensary, workhouse, 
 school, reformatory, prison, and asylum 
 medical officers had better opportunities 
 provided for research, and they were made 
 the preliminary to higher appointments 
 of eminence in the profession, progress 
 in the science of the prevention of dis- 
 ease would be very rapid. No one who 
 has held office in hospitals, and who has 
 formed a part of those efficient machines 
 for the treatment of the poor, can fail to be 
 deeply impressed with their activity and 
 power of doing more or less lasting good. 
 It is impossible to conceive that their work 
 should be curtailed in any way till there is 
 a concerted attempt to deal with the com- 
 mencements of disease. 
 
 The strained activities of hospitals have 
 necessitated the allocation of research to 
 specialists who have assumed the heavy 
 responsibility of acquiring and testing the 
 
158 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 utility and accuracy of facts acquired either 
 by themselves or by their colleagues all 
 over the world. The organisations have 
 tended to become more and more inter- 
 national, as they are doing the same work 
 and therefore have the same interests. It 
 is becoming necessary to have some sort 
 of clearing-house to prevent the almost in- 
 evitable overlapping and unnecessary repe- 
 tition of experiment that occurs. At the 
 present time this is secured by congresses 
 and the publication of a large number of 
 journals that are eagerly read by polyglot 
 workers all over the world. In these days 
 a new truth is. passed through a crucible 
 of criticism and check-experiment before it 
 is passed on to the practising branches of 
 the medical profession. The result of this 
 has been that there are a number of prin- 
 ciples of the first rank that have been 
 almost insensibly absorbed into the body 
 of accepted doctrine. In the absence of 
 such organisations in the immediate past 
 there would have been a history of bitter 
 and strenuous fights which would have 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 1 59 
 
 rent the profession to its foundations. 
 The subjects in which research is mainly- 
 conducted are pathology, bacteriology, and 
 physiology. 
 
 T'he Laboratories of Pathology 
 
 This science concerns itself with the 
 reactions of the body to the adverse influ- 
 ences causing disease. These effects have 
 been carefully studied microscopically and 
 with the naked eye. Attempts are made 
 to explain the symptoms which clinical 
 or practising physicians have observed in 
 their examination of patients. It may be 
 safely said that it is by means of this 
 science that the most valuable results in 
 the progress of the medical sciences have 
 been obtained. A comparatively new 
 branch of pathology is that of pathological 
 chemistry, which is of the utmost impor- 
 tance, and promises to provide a rich har- 
 vest in the future by the discovery of the 
 phenomena accompanying those errors of 
 metabolism dependent upon tissue change 
 that seems to show an unsuspected com- 
 
160 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 munity in the origin of many of the 
 common diseases. The difficulty of this 
 department of pathology lies in the fact 
 that few can attain to the thorough knowl- 
 edge of chemistry that it necessitates, and 
 that comparatively little work can be done 
 by the competent few. 
 
 The Laboratories of Bacteriology 
 
 One of the glories of France is that her 
 illustrious son Pasteur had the distinction 
 of inaugurating a new epoch in the history 
 of the medical sciences by the discovery of 
 the influence of micro-organisms in the 
 causation of disease. There has been no 
 more triumphant demonstration of the 
 vast and far-reaching influence of positive 
 knowledge on ideas and practice. Before 
 Pasteur and Lister, surgery was an art in 
 its infancy, so that no one in his wildest 
 dreams could have conceived the effects 
 that have followed on the development 
 of their research. It would be difficult 
 even to guess at the number of valuable 
 lives that have been saved from lingering 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES l6l 
 
 diseases or immediate death by these 
 discoveries. 
 
 The researches into the causes of ma- 
 laria that are so closely associated with the 
 name of Major Ross have had a great 
 and far-reaching effect. The heroic con- 
 duct of the American soldiers in offering 
 themselves as volunteers for research into 
 the causes of yellow fever was unique 
 in the annals of military history, and 
 enabled valuable work to be completed. 
 The modern treatment of diphtheria, too, 
 has saved many lives. 
 
 If there had been as fine a harvest of 
 knowledge in the principles and practice 
 of regeneration and humaniculture as 
 there has been in bacteriology, knowledge 
 of such value would have been acquired 
 that the conditions of living would have 
 been entirely changed. The origin of the 
 zeal and effort that have been so freely 
 and profitably expended in bacteriology 
 has been primarily the desire to find cures 
 for disease, but, as is frequently the case, 
 it is an open question whether the con- 
 
1 62 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 tributions to the positive knowledge of 
 the phenomena of life will not prove to 
 be of even greater importance. It has 
 become almost popular knowledge to 
 distinguish between the main factors in 
 the action of microbes on the body, the 
 character of the poison, and the prop- 
 erties of the soil in which it has been 
 sown. The defensive properties of the 
 body have provided against the invasion 
 of micro-organisms a set of faculties that 
 were quite unsuspected both in their singu- 
 lar efficacy and in their complexity. The 
 researches that have been conducted in 
 this fertile and remarkable field of knowl- 
 edge will remain models of what research 
 ought to be. It has brought a set of 
 principles into the domain of positive 
 science that cannot fail to have the great- 
 est influence on the science of humani- 
 culture when it takes its legitimate rank 
 in the hierarchy of science. 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 1 63 
 
 The Laboratories of Physiology 
 
 The only one of the medical sciences 
 that deals with the phenomena of life 
 apart from disease is Physiology. This 
 science aims to teach and to search into 
 the phenomena of life in general and of 
 human life in particular. In point of fact, 
 however, almost the only definite instances 
 in which any text-book on physiology deals 
 with purely human physiology is where 
 it is absolutely obliged to, as in the case 
 of the special senses. It may be said that 
 physiology acquires and distributes the 
 science of the phenomena of life with very 
 insignificant and unpractical references to 
 the phenomena of the adaptation of human 
 beings to their environment. 
 
 The science can be said to have origi- 
 nated in its modern form in the labours 
 of Claude Bernard. When he gave his 
 inaugural lecture, he is reported to have 
 said, with a rare audacity, that " the scien- 
 tific medicine I have to teach you does 
 not exist," inferring that it would be 
 
1 64 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 necessary for him to create it. His sub- 
 sequent work bore out his claim. Both 
 he and his master Majendie, who pre- 
 ceded him in his chair, conceived 
 physiology as the pioneer and director of 
 medicine. At the start of his work it 
 was, above all, urgently necessary to clear 
 away the wild dreams that were current 
 among his contemporaries on the most 
 elementary facts of physiology. This 
 logically necessitated the 'herculean task 
 to which he devoted his life. He always 
 took the keenest interest in the history, 
 philosophy, and progress of medicine. He 
 held the highest and most lofty views of 
 the destinies of the medical sciences, feeling 
 clearly that the one great interest in life was 
 human interest. The success of his work 
 can be said to be startling. There was not 
 a department in physiology that he did not 
 illumine by his researches. His work was 
 almost necessarily in laboratories. 
 
 No one would venture to question that 
 there has been a magnificent production 
 in physiology and that its work has shown 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 165 
 
 itself to be of the highest value ; if, how- 
 ever, the highest aim of science is to dis- 
 cover the methods of the perfecting of man, 
 it must be confessed that it has not adopted 
 the most evident means to attain success. 
 Physiology can be said to have had al- 
 located to it for exploitation one of the 
 most important gold fields of human 
 knowledge, and that it has been so hyp- 
 notised by the rich mine discovered by 
 Claude Bernard that it has not moved 
 from it. If there had been a systematic 
 investigation of the whole field that is 
 allotted to physiologists, it would be seen 
 that there are more profitable outlets for 
 energy than crushing the comparatively 
 low-grade ore of mere laboratory investiga- 
 tion. For such knowledge is practically no 
 more than the science of the material that 
 can be brought into a laboratory. The 
 reason for bringing forward these consid- 
 erations is that in those questions that in- 
 volve practical humaniculture, it is useless 
 to look on physiology as being in any sense 
 of the word the court of appeal for complete 
 
l66 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 information or even competent judgment. 
 It is obviously not the business of physi- 
 ology, neither has it had the experience 
 necessary to adjudicate on such matters. 
 
 An interesting fact is that, so far as the 
 author knows, there are only four physi- 
 ologists concerned officially with physical 
 development, — Dr. Anderson of Yale 
 University ; Dr. McCurdy of Springfield, 
 Mass. ; Dr. Storey of Leland Stanford 
 University, California ; and Dr. G. W. 
 Fitz of Boston ; all of them being Amer- 
 icans. 1 At Cambridge, England, there 
 was formerly a blacksmith who enjoyed a 
 considerable reputation as a trainer on the 
 river ; yet, though Cambridge University 
 can be said to be the home of progressive 
 physiology in England, no one evidently 
 thought it worth while to make or re- 
 cord observations on such a subject. In 
 the humaniculture days of Greece this was 
 
 1 Mention should also be made of the following Amer- 
 ican medical men prominent in directing physical develop- 
 ment: Drs. Sargent of Harvard, Meylan of Columbia, 
 Reycroft of Chicago, McKenzie of Pennsylvania, Bab- 
 bitt of Haverford, Hough of Simmons, Ward Crampton, 
 and Bowen. 
 
APPARATUS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES 1 67 
 
 a duty that was thought to be a distinction 
 by the greatest and ablest citizens. 
 
 No one would wish to see physiological 
 research in any direction discontinued or 
 the work of physiological laboratories 
 curtailed in any way. On the contrary, 
 unlimited support should be available 
 for this neglected branch of science, for 
 it deals with the motive power of man- 
 kind. If its services to humanity had 
 only been to give scientific training to 
 medical men the science would have amply 
 justified its existence. It must be clearly 
 borne in mind that work on the pres- 
 ent lines is the only possible way where 
 that control of circumstances can be ob- 
 tained which, it is needless to point out, 
 has proved itself essential for effective 
 scientific experiment. Physiology must 
 continue to be the trusted adviser of 
 medicine, and ultimately provide the work- 
 ers for certain branches of research as well 
 as the scientific foundation for the science 
 and art of humaniculture. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 
 
 There is something grand and imposing 
 in the history of the medical sciences. No 
 other subject can give so many warnings 
 of the faulty applications of knowledge, 
 can show more rash and ill-reasoned action 
 on inadequate information and hasty gen- 
 eralisations. On the other hand, no art 
 has called out so many fine human quali- 
 ties, such disinterested lives spent in the 
 service of humanity, in the slow and 
 painstaking work of the discovery of that 
 positive knowledge which has had so ex- 
 traordinary an influence on the progress 
 of humanity. Numbers have sacrificed 
 their lives willingly, not only in the direct 
 service of the sick, where active sympa- 
 thies are enlisted, but in the quiet and 
 emotionless fields of scientific research. 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES l6g 
 
 Superstition and reason, quackery and 
 orthodoxy, metaphysics and theocratics, 
 wisdom and folly, observation and experi- 
 ment, have in turn served to construct the 
 foundations of the magnificent edifices of 
 research and practice of modern times. 
 The modern dominant ideals of the medi- 
 cal sciences are founded on the sure ground 
 of clinical observation, pathology, and ex- 
 perimental research. It must not be for- 
 gotten that it is necessary to subject these 
 ideals to the most jealous scrutiny and the 
 closest criticism, for in matters that affect 
 human betterment nothing but the best 
 possible orientation of effort that can be 
 conceived is satisfactory. 
 
 It is not unprofitable to reflect what 
 would have been the effect on the arts of 
 medicine and humaniculture if patients 
 had paid for the prevention and not for 
 the cure of disease. It is true that the 
 vast collection of clinical and pathological 
 material accumulated by modern work is 
 the capital on which future progress will 
 draw cheques that will never be dishon- 
 
170 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 oured ; and it is also necessary to recollect 
 that notwithstanding the ills of plethoric 
 luxury the amount of disease and suffer- 
 ing has been lessened to an amazing 
 extent. 
 
 The main task of medicine in the future 
 is to define and classify those states found 
 on the frontiers of disease ; in short, to 
 measure the deviations from optimum 
 health. From this, the discovery of the 
 principles and practice of regeneration will 
 lead on to the millennium, when social 
 progress will be founded on progressive 
 and scientific humaniculture. It is pro- 
 posed to set out as clearly and as briefly 
 as possible the present state of the 
 medical sciences, and the indications 
 that present themselves of the develop- 
 ment of the ideals of humaniculture and 
 regeneration. 
 
 As we have seen in the case of the 
 doctrines dealing with human nature 
 generally, they can be divided into the 
 two classes, optimistic and pessimistic. 
 The medical sciences, associated closely, 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES IJl 
 
 as they have always been, with human 
 thought and affairs, have not escaped the 
 influence of metaphysical conceptions. 
 The pessimistic doctrines still survive and 
 draw their gloomy satisfaction or dissatis- 
 faction from their inheritance of the meta- 
 physical dual theory and the theocratic 
 conceptions of the innate evil of the 
 human body. These dangerous ideals 
 have, as we have seen, been mainly re- 
 sponsible for the martyrdom of man in the 
 Middle Ages. They derived their philo- 
 sophical support from the writings of 
 Seneca, who, no doubt, was horrified by 
 the consequences of Roman luxury. He 
 initiated a revolt against the Hellenic 
 ideals, which were in no way at fault, as 
 they were never designed for the uses of 
 the degenerate and self-indulgent. The 
 soul, according to Seneca, was as much 
 above the body as divinity is above mat- 
 ter. The body was a negligible factor, the 
 mere earthly tenement of the tormented 
 soul, in which it was never at rest. In the 
 domain of the medical sciences there has 
 
172 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 naturally been a great deal of speculation, 
 but very little scientific inquiry into the 
 early causation of intemperance, errors in 
 diet, gluttony, etc. What could be more 
 easy and natural than to adopt some 
 variant of the pessimistic doctrines as an 
 explanation, such as the incurable stupidity 
 of human nature, and the like. " Civilisa- 
 tion," said Bichat, "is nothing more than 
 the environment which tends to destroy 
 human kind." 
 
 These doctrines have recently appeared 
 in a new dress ; scientifically speaking, 
 the dual theory of human nature is out of 
 date, and abandoned for a carping criticism 
 of the human body and the common char- 
 acteristics of the human mind. We have 
 now a new type of philosopher, living and 
 working in the seclusion of laboratories. 
 It is a matter for congratulation that one 
 of the most eminent of them, Professor 
 Metchnikoff, has written a formidable 
 book, with the comprehensive title " Hu- 
 man Nature." In this book, that has been 
 translated into all languages and which has 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 73 
 
 gone out as the very latest and complete 
 scientific conception of human nature, 
 there is that misleading evidence of the 
 most profound erudition applied to faulty- 
 doctrine. Gravely and reluctantly, with 
 serious emphasis, we are bidden to review 
 the most extensive researches into both 
 literature and science to arraign poor 
 human nature, and to find therein what 
 the professor is pleased to call " dishar- 
 monies." To be able to appreciate his 
 views it is necessary to learn the use of 
 the professor's instrument, the mental 
 microscope, — so very restricted is the 
 field that he confines us to. That body 
 which the Greeks cultivated, the intellect 
 they developed with such great success, he 
 takes to pieces and finds imperfect. Un- 
 like most of the ancient pessimists, he is 
 modern in that he has a remedy ; science 
 that dwells in the haughty seclusion of 
 its laboratories will help us. We are to 
 be buoyed up with the hope that ulti- 
 mately there will be a new scientific crea- 
 tion, a human body relieved of yards of 
 
174 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 discordant intestine by surgeons and for- 
 tified by anti-toxins, living carefully, by 
 the latest laws given out by the laborato- 
 ries, on a diet of sour milk and curds, 
 which curdled diet apparently pleases 
 microbes as little as it does ordinary men 
 and women. 
 
 The book commences with the not 
 unappropriate statement that science has 
 destroyed the foundations of religion and 
 that it has left nothing in its place. There 
 is some degree of truth in this statement, 
 however, as science has not yet devoted 
 itself to the perfecting of man. After 
 extensive researches in the highways and 
 byways of literature and science, the most 
 incongruous guests are bidden to a feast 
 to celebrate the imperfections of the human 
 body. With the exception that certain 
 human disharmonies are not found to be 
 derived from the innate viciousness of 
 microbes, it can be safely said that no 
 possible count of the indictment has been 
 omitted. The foundation of the indict- 
 ment the professor rightly lays in inhar- 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 175 
 
 monic structure. The world has never 
 been permanently the worse for pessimis- 
 tic philosophers, but if any could show that 
 there are structural deficiencies, there really 
 would be something tangible and under- 
 standable in his criticisms of the human 
 body. It is well known that in the animal 
 kingdom the structural changes that ac- 
 company the development of new types 
 are so gradual and slow as to be scarcely 
 perceptible. In Anatomy it is found 
 that there are a number of structures 
 which are peculiarly subject to variations 
 in different members of the same species. 
 These structures are of two classes : the 
 progressive variations characterising types, 
 and the retrogressive comprising the or- 
 gans that are tending to disappear, and 
 that apparently serve no useful purpose, 
 being merely inheritances from a previous 
 type. Each of these retrogressive and 
 progressive organs have the common qual- 
 ity of variation ; they may be said to rep- 
 resent the future and the past in the 
 evolution of the body, and are character- 
 
176 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 istic of all animals. Though these varia- 
 tions can in no sense of the word be 
 looked on as a peculiarly human charac- 
 teristic, yet Professor Metchnikoff chooses 
 to call them, in the case of the human 
 body alone, disharmonies. The dishar- 
 monies that are important and noticeable, 
 with the exception of some rather far- 
 fetched gibes at the skin and wisdom teeth, 
 are to be found in the large intestine and 
 vermiform appendix. Here we have a 
 disharmony that is useless, because as one 
 woman lived thirty-seven years without a 
 large intestine, therefore all the rest of the 
 world is better without it. What would 
 Bacon have thought of such an argument ? 
 The large intestine is bad, too, because 
 ostriches and parrots are better without it ; 
 so, then, here is an additional reason that 
 human beings do not want it. The mam- 
 mals possess it, so that they need not stop 
 in their headlong flight away from an 
 enemy or after their prey, as the case may 
 be, to drop their waste, but can wait for 
 some convenient opportunity. For this 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 77 
 
 mammalian convenience and because of na- 
 ture's defective ways, the whole of human 
 nature is cursed with a considerable dis- 
 harmony. It has been shown that the 
 practice of poltophagy results in certain 
 phenomena in the large intestines and 
 in the characteristics of the waste which 
 go far to attain the harmonies that Pro- 
 fessor Metchnikoff requires. 
 
 It is claimed that positive science, pro- 
 ceeding from the simple to the complex, 
 and from particular to general proposi- 
 tions, is now making an attempt to remedy 
 man's organic disharmonies. It is per- 
 fectly true that medical science has gath- 
 ered a wonderful harvest of the science of 
 the effects of faulty adaptation ; but, on 
 the other hand, since the days of Greece it 
 has played such a purely passive part in 
 humaniculture that it has not even at- 
 tempted to understand it. We are told 
 that only science is capable of dealing with 
 " inharmonious " man, and that we ought 
 to rely on it when it is ready to pronounce 
 Jts utterances. Why must we wait for the 
 
178 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 medical sciences to proceed in their slow 
 and laborious study of effects in hospitals 
 and laboratories ? Why not cut the Gor- 
 dian knot and induce scientists to turn to 
 the more profitable paths of observation 
 in the field of causation and experiment 
 on real human beings in real surround- 
 ings? Why take so much trouble with 
 the study of pathological old age, when it 
 is much more useful to produce physio- 
 logical old age? Why not correct the 
 so-called disharmonies by harmonious 
 and scientific adaptation to surroundings? 
 To formulate clearly the conceptions of 
 regeneration and humaniculture, doing the 
 best with the whole body as it is, intact, 
 and capable of perfection as well as of 
 degeneration, is the service we desire of 
 science. If less attention is directed to 
 the effects of unnecessary reactions to ad- 
 verse factors in an environment, and more 
 to harmonious environment, there will 
 be less and less need to disturb our- 
 selves about the structures in which nature 
 chooses to manifest its degenerative and 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 79 
 
 retrogressive as well as its regenerative 
 and progressive activities. It is difficult 
 to conceive that the great discoverer of 
 phagocytosis should not have been filled 
 with respectful wonder at the new and 
 marvellous power of defence and adapta- 
 tion which he was the means of bringing 
 to light, and that he should not have 
 seen that he had the great distinction 
 of adding yet another reason for holding 
 anything but an attitude of carping criti- 
 cism before nature's masterpiece. 
 
 The discoveries of Pasteur inaugurated 
 a new era in the general conceptions of 
 the medical sciences. He gave a mighty 
 impetus to the study of causation ; for the 
 first time a number of the most terrible 
 scourges of humanity were recognised to 
 be due to the presence and activity of 
 microbes. At first it was thought that 
 the mere presence of the micro-organisms 
 sufficed to produce the symptoms, but 
 further research established a most impor- 
 tant principle that has had a wide-spread 
 influence in the comprehension of the 
 
ISO HUMANICULTURE 
 
 causation of other diseases. The actual 
 physical effects causing the symptoms 
 were clearly and unmistakably shown to 
 be due to poisoning, or toxaemia, and 
 that the poison was the consequence of 
 the growth of the micro-organisms by 
 the consumption of the contents and 
 constituent elements of the body, which 
 they convert by the chemical processes 
 of their nutrition into fatal or danger- 
 ous poisons. It was then shown that 
 there were entirely different effects pro- 
 duced in different individuals by the same 
 dose of toxin or poison, or of micro- 
 organisms. This led to the discovery of 
 certain vital defensive apparatus that the 
 body possessed against both the microbes 
 and their poisons. The chemical reaction 
 produced certain antidotes that were called 
 anti-toxins ; these substances were shown 
 to be definite chemical bodies which could 
 be isolated and kept so as to be used by 
 other individuals attacked by similar poi- 
 sons. This is the principle at the back 
 of the anti-toxin treatment for diphtheria, 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES l8l 
 
 Two main factors of the problem were 
 made prominent, the nature of the seed 
 sown and the character of the soil in 
 which it was sown ; in other words, the 
 virulence of the poison and the resistance 
 that the body is able to offer. The re- 
 sistance of the body, speaking generally, 
 depends on the condition of health in 
 which the individual is when the poison 
 enters the body. It can be safely said that 
 no subject has in so short a time rendered 
 such wonderful service to humanity as 
 bacteriology. 
 
 One of the results of the impetus given 
 to the progress of the medical sciences by 
 Pasteur was that vitally important prin- 
 ciple of the toxicity of disease, — in other 
 words, that disease is directly caused in 
 most cases by toxins or poisons. These 
 poisons, as we have seen in the case of 
 microbic diseases, are derived from the 
 organisms ; they are exo-toxic, that is to 
 say, derived from poisons outside the 
 body. A remarkable and fundamental 
 service has been rendered by another 
 
1 82 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 great Frenchman, Professor Bouchard, 
 who has the distinction of having demon- 
 strated that the body is engaged in the 
 manufacture of poisons both in health 
 and in disease. The work he has under- 
 taken has been long, difficult, and labori- 
 ous ; but it has been fruitful to an extent 
 that is only beginning to be appreciated at 
 its full value. Some of the most puzzling 
 and troublesome diseases, from the point 
 of view of causation, are those chronic 
 maladies, such as gout, rheumatism, etc. 
 They are not so dramatic and impressive 
 as the microbic diseases, but they are apt 
 to come early and stay till the end of life. 
 The work of Professor Bouchard has been 
 to group these diseases under a common 
 cause, that of auto-toxaemia, or self-poison- 
 ing. If his work had stopped there, it 
 would have been another instance of giving 
 diseases a new name and leaving things as 
 they were. But he defined a condition 
 that he called " retarded nutrition," which 
 can be looked on as the condition from 
 whence a number of these diseases evolve. 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 83 
 
 The progress of this subtle enemy can 
 be best understood by following an ac- 
 count of a common form of development 
 of the trouble. The beginning of things 
 is usually overwork or over-exercise, or 
 the consequence of exposure to adverse 
 surroundings. The individual becomes 
 tired, there is no opportunity for rest. 
 Perhaps the call for repose is met with 
 stimulation in some form or other, such 
 as alcohol, coffee, tea, or a large meal 
 to " stoke up." The body is already 
 tired, so that the fresh work thrown on it 
 by the stimulating meal makes digestion 
 peculiarly difficult and costly. Insidi- 
 ously and almost unnoticed that formida- 
 ble enemy dyspepsia installs itself. This 
 may last for years, accompanied by acidity 
 or not. The patient begins to be careful 
 of his diet, such and such a beverage or 
 food no longer suits him, he is no longer 
 the man he was, he recalls that he is 
 liable to be subject to "aristocratic" 
 hereditary diseases. He may have a 
 defective appetite, or he may be the sub- 
 
1 84 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 ject of uncontrollable fierce dyspeptic 
 hunger that is only satisfied by uncom- 
 fortable and dulling repletion. Together 
 with these symptoms are found one or 
 other of those manifestations of the most 
 modern of diseases known as hysteria, 
 neurasthenia, psychasthenia, and the many 
 other forms of nervousness. Later on 
 the sufferer begins to lose the acid char- 
 acter of his dyspepsia, — instead of over 
 acidity or hyper-acidity, there is hypo- 
 acidity or under acidity. In these cases 
 there are present a number of complica- 
 tions that arise from the presence of intes- 
 tinal fermentations from micro-organisms, 
 which are continually introducing poison- 
 ous substances into the body. This 
 throws unnecessary work on the liver and 
 kidneys, which are probably already over- 
 taxed. Then begins the period of various 
 inflammations of the intestinal canal, one 
 of the best known being appendicitis. 
 Nervous symptoms become more promi- 
 nent; there may be fits of bad temper, 
 irritability, or suicidal depression. These 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 185 
 
 conditions are typically associated with the 
 onset of the group of diseases character- 
 ised by " nutrition retardante." They are 
 gout and goutiness, rheumatism, gravel, 
 bile-stones, migraine, neuralgia, asthma, 
 Bright's disease, obesity, diabetes, and 
 diseases of the heart and arteries. This 
 formidable list of diseases are for the first 
 time associated together, and are practi- 
 cally certainly produced by the continual 
 transgression of the laws of right living ; 
 in other words, the adverse factors greatly 
 preponderate over the favourable factors 
 of environment. 
 
 These diseases have been looked on as 
 distinct in origin as in their pathological 
 conditions ; they are, in all probability, 
 nothing more than branches from the 
 same trunk. The main errors of hygiene 
 are excessive work when rest is required, 
 and above all excessive and hurried eat- 
 ing, with excess of alcohol and other stim- 
 ulants. One can see, then, that in this 
 important French school there is a strong 
 note of hopefulness. It is classifying dis- 
 
1 86 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 ease, and tracing it to its common origin 
 in the unscientific adaptation to environ- 
 ment. Just as we have seen that the 
 important adverse factor in the microbic 
 diseases was the state of health of the sub- 
 ject, so we find that the time to cure 
 chronic diseases is before they begin to 
 show themselves in their distinctive forms. 
 The explanations of the causation of these 
 two large groups are approaching the same 
 problem from different standpoints ; each 
 can be said to be asking the question, 
 " What is health ? how is it attained and 
 maintained ? " These new ideals are be- 
 ing admirably supported by Professor 
 Bouchard, who said : " We live in an 
 epoch where our doctrine will be renewed, 
 not so much in matters of detail, but in 
 the fundamental notions of the science, 
 and the domain of science will become 
 enlarged." 
 
 The following quotations from a paper 
 by Dr. Mott, F. R. S., show that this 
 distinguished authority looks on toxaemia 
 as being one of the great causes of nervous 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 87 
 
 diseases : " There are a great number of 
 functional and organic diseases of the 
 nervous system in which poisons circu- 
 lating in the blood act as contributory, 
 predisposing, or exciting causes to persons 
 with a neuropathic or psychopathic hered- 
 ity, also to persons who have subjected 
 their nervous systems to excessive func- 
 tional activity or stress." " These three 
 factors, toxaemia, stress, and hereditary 
 neurosis or psychosis, combine to form a 
 vicious circle in a majority of cases, — a 
 vicious circle that is continually extending 
 its limits, and which can only be broken 
 by the removal of one or more of the 
 three factors. Obviously in individuals 
 only the first two are capable of with- 
 drawal." There is no peril that so im- 
 presses itself on the imagination as the 
 peril of lunacy and mental diseases, and 
 there is nothing that is causing greater 
 anxiety generally than the large increase 
 of lunacy in recent times. There are, in- 
 deed, good grounds for the opinion that 
 in this scourge, as well as in the case of 
 
1 88 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 other groups of disease, the primary cause 
 is an ignorance of the science of adaptation 
 to environment. 
 
 There are, then, to be found many 
 grounds for the confident hope that at last 
 the medical sciences will find themselves 
 in the position of having a definite orien- 
 tation of thought and action towards the 
 discovery of the means of the preven- 
 tion of disease, and that there is a strong 
 tendency to go over the old ground so as 
 to dot the i's and cross the /'s, as it were, 
 after the hard-won success in so many 
 fields of research. This view receives 
 support from the address delivered this 
 year (1905) to the British Medical As- 
 sociation by Dr. Maudsley, the President 
 of the Section of Medicine : " Looking 
 out on the present state and prospect of 
 medicine, it is obvious that its future 
 work will be mainly to prevent and stop 
 the beginning of disease — to take good 
 order that it shall not come, and if it do 
 come, to prevent functional disorder from 
 lapsing into fixed disease, which must be 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 89 
 
 given over either to the surgeon's knife 
 or to the shears of Atropos ; for to de- 
 spise the little things of functional disorder 
 is to fall by little and little into organic 
 disease." "In the work of fortifying the 
 body to resist the encroachments of dis- 
 ease, the most simple means are the best, 
 and, as Hippocrates said, it is in the 
 use of simple means that great physicians 
 especially differ from others. Pure air, 
 clean and proper food, regular and adapted 
 exercise, — these sum up the measures 
 prescribed as proper to give it inward 
 strength, and to keep it in sound and 
 supple activity. But they are not all, for 
 they leave out mind ; and as a sound body 
 is the condition of a sound mind, so the 
 wholesome exercise of a calm and well- 
 disciplined mind, ready to meet all changes 
 with composure, ministers mightily to 
 health of body." 
 
 " If mankind is to be perfected, the 
 means of perfecting it must be sought in 
 the medical sciences. For my part I can- 
 not doubt that a positive science of human 
 
I go HUMANICULTURE 
 
 nature, as it gradually emerges into form, 
 will make it ever more and more plain 
 that, by operation of natural law in the 
 process of evolution, sound thought, good 
 moral feeling, and devotion to a high 
 ideal are the solid foundation of health 
 and wealth of mind in individuals, in 
 families, and through families in nations." 
 
 Such an address as this is a sign of the 
 times, and it is more than justified by the 
 amazing improvement in conditions that 
 are consequent on the solid and valuable 
 contributions to positive science during 
 the last two decades, that bid fair to revo- 
 lutionise life as soon as the treatment and 
 recognition of those manifold conditions 
 at the frontiers of disease are not only 
 fully understood, but treated thoroughly 
 by regeneration. 
 
 The object of Part II. has been to as- 
 certain whether there is a justification for 
 the views expressed in Part I. : 
 
 (i) In the history of the genesis and 
 growth of medical doctrines. 
 
 (2) In the constitution, activities, and 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 191 
 
 effects of hospitals and laboratories, espe- 
 cially with reference to their influence on 
 thought. 
 
 (3) To see whether there is any ten- 
 dency in the latest expression of modern 
 medical doctrines of an orientation towards 
 the adoption of the principles and practice 
 of humaniculture. 
 
 In the first chapter, in far too brief a 
 manner, it is endeavoured to bring out the 
 essential similarity, or rather the continuity, 
 of ancient and modern dominating ideals 
 in medicine. These ideals, then, have 
 not disappeared, but they have become 
 most profoundly modified by practice and 
 the acquisition of that positive, permanent 
 knowledge that is obtained by production. 
 In these days faith cures are called sug- 
 gestion and hypnotism, though at the 
 same time we have, as it is well known, 
 theocratic and other forms still with us. 
 The expectant plan of treatment in these 
 days is in high favour, more so than at 
 any time in history ; empiricism, too, ren- 
 dered more intelligent and subjected to 
 
192 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 continual improvements, remains, fortu- 
 nately, the trusted guide of practitioners ; 
 the " cure idea " is popular, as one can 
 see by the study of last year's forgotten 
 novelties in the drug-lists, or of the 
 patent medicines in the advertisements. 
 
 Enough has been said to identify the 
 character of the apparatus and the doc- 
 trines of physicians throughout history, 
 not only with the dominating ideals cur- 
 rent among the people, but with their 
 requirements. This is well illustrated in 
 the humaniculture days of Greece. It was 
 a time free from deforming ideals; in point 
 of fact, the mental speculative conceptions 
 coincided very closely with successful 
 practice. In other words, the essential 
 conceptions, both religious and philo- 
 sophical, as well as the practical philoso- 
 phy, of every-day life were harmonised, 
 progressive, and therefore effective. Op- 
 timum health, or, at any rate, a sufficiently 
 close approximation to it, has been at- 
 tained and maintained by the continued 
 test of action in physical exercise; such as, 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 193 
 
 for instance, in the case of the hardships 
 of the Roman soldiers recounted by Julius 
 Caesar. So soon, however, as men began 
 to settle in towns and cities, an easier and 
 insidious environment was substituted for 
 the rugged tests of war; there was no 
 longer such need to keep in fighting trim ; 
 nature, sphinx-like, then propounded a 
 new question, — how to make use of the 
 supreme gift of reason for the scientific 
 adaptation to the new environment. This 
 question has not yet been answered, and 
 daily, hourly, the penalty of the fabled 
 sphinx is being paid all over the world. 
 
 In the history of religions, where medi- 
 cine was born, it is found that they are 
 closely associated with practical, sensible 
 laws for the conduct of life, though not 
 in such a high degree of excellence as in 
 Grecian mythology. It is easy to think 
 of the Egyptian priest-doctors, with a 
 pitying smile for the credulity of their 
 patients ; but, on the other hand, Moses 
 was educated by them, and thus was able 
 
 to embody their excellent hygienic laws 
 13 
 
194 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 with the ritual of the Jewish religion. 
 Mahomet was closely familiar with the 
 marked differences between the desert 
 Bedouins and the inhabitants of the towns 
 in Arabia, and thus was able to embody 
 certain hygienic religious observances that 
 have since proved invaluable. There are 
 those who wonder at the vitality and en- 
 durance of the Salvation Army; their 
 wonder would cease if they read a book 
 written by General Booth entitled " Re- 
 ligion for every Day." There are chap- 
 ters on clothes, sleep, personal cleanliness, 
 sickness, and hints on health and water 
 treatment. Nothing explains the success 
 of the Army better than the common sense 
 and excellent counsels found in the book. 
 The following quotation is chosen at 
 random: "A man's food has much to do 
 with the exercise of his gifts. It affects 
 his ability to sing, to pray, to reason, to 
 talk, to lead. A hearty meal of the plain- 
 est fare, or a very small quantity of richer 
 food, will often clothe my soul with 
 torpor, make my brain feel like a log of 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 95 
 
 wood, and render speaking or writing a 
 positive torture." No more need be said 
 than that the book is full of such practical 
 direct counsel. This year two significant 
 events occurred in Rome : a copy of the 
 shrine at Lourdes was erected in the 
 gardens of the Vatican ; the Pope received 
 the gymnastic societies of Italy and other 
 countries with marks of the highest 
 favour. The observation can be made 
 without any disrespect that His Holiness 
 and the Cardinals habitually make use of 
 the best medical talent available. These 
 three instances illustrate the principles of 
 faith cure, humaniculture, and orthodox 
 medicine. 
 
 A great difference is noted between the 
 ways of the profession of engineering and 
 those of the medical sciences. It would 
 not be questioned that the " physiology " 
 of engineering is scientific physics, which, 
 like human physiology, confines its activi- 
 ties to laboratories. No one would be 
 more astounded than Professor Thomp- 
 son if he were asked to act as engineer, 
 
I96 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 or even to lay down laws for engineers' 
 practical work, let us say on a man- 
 of-war. On the other hand, it is most 
 unquestionably laboratory physics that 
 has been responsible for the immense 
 progress in that department of human 
 activity. 
 
 Medical laboratory scientists have had 
 just as great an influence on practice and 
 ideas as have the physical scientists. In 
 the same way that it would not be in the 
 slightest degree derogatory to doubt the 
 ability of Professor Thompson to act as 
 engineer, one can effectively criticise the 
 incursion of physiologists and bacteriolo- 
 gists from the realms of observation and 
 measurement into that of production. One 
 might carry this parallel still further by 
 doubting the ability of a captain of a 
 man-of-war to handle a ferry-boat, or that 
 of a famous physician to take charge of 
 the education of a school in humanicul- 
 ture. As long as physiologists have not 
 conspicuous success in attaining and main- 
 taining more than average health them- 
 
MODERN MEDICAL DOCTRINES 1 97 
 
 selves, it is legitimate to say. with the old 
 proverb that " among the blind the one- 
 eyed man is king," and to hope that the 
 time is not far distant when none must 
 necessarily be blind or even one-eyed. 
 
 In answer to the question as to whether 
 there is evidence of an orientation towards 
 the principles of humaniculture in modern 
 medical doctrines, all will admit that there 
 is abundant evidence that medical doc- 
 trines are undergoing profound changes. 
 This is sufficiently well shown by the 
 quotations from Professor Bouchard, Drs. 
 Mott and Maudsley, the address of Sir 
 F. Treves, etc. The reason is that a pro- 
 digious amount of work has been done 
 in many directions, and as the work has 
 all been done on man for man, the most 
 urgent and dramatic diseases have been 
 robbed of their terrors, and it is only 
 natural that interest should have shifted 
 to the origin of the more difficult chronic 
 diseases, and to those minor ailments that 
 Professor Hericourt so well calls " Les 
 Frontieres de la Maladie." To sum up, 
 
198 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 then, all evidence leads irresistibly to the 
 conclusion that the cause of most troubles, 
 the root and trunk of the vast spreading 
 tree of disease, lies in the absence of 
 business-like humaniculture. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 
 
 It has been said that intemperate enthusi- 
 asm and certain other circumstances have 
 induced those who are interested in 
 Fletcherism to make claims for its suc- 
 cess which its importance does not justify ; 
 in short, to exaggerate its value. To 
 understand its peculiar importance it is 
 necessary to define what is meant by 
 " humaniculture." Looked at from the 
 simplest point of view, a child is an 
 organism that develops by virtue of the 
 reaction of its body to its environment. 
 The body is able to react to its environ- 
 ment by virtue of certain aptitudes and 
 qualities that characterise all human beings. 
 It is obvious that the factors to which 
 each body is exposed are either adverse 
 
200 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 or favourable to the development of the 
 organism. 
 
 These factors can be divided into three 
 classes : 
 
 (i) The Respiratory Group. These fac- 
 tors are naturally of vital importance, as we 
 breathe on an average about twenty times 
 a minute. They comprise all the external 
 circumstances modifying the respiratory 
 apparatus, the muscles, lungs, etc. 
 
 (2) The Digestive Group. These factors 
 are second in order of importance. As 
 food and drink are usually taken in daily, 
 it is necessary that their quality and quan- 
 tity should be as nearly as possible those 
 actually required by the body. These 
 factors involve the ingestion of food, such 
 as mastication and insalivation, that are 
 influenced by taste and appetite. 
 
 (3) The Group of Factors, guided by In- 
 telligence, including the Physical and Mental 
 Education of the Body. Education is of 
 two kinds : (a) Those subjects that apper- 
 tain to humaniculture in its relation to 
 the fundamental aptitudes of respiration 
 
PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 201 
 
 and digestion. It includes, in short, all 
 those subjects that are necessary for the 
 entire science, for the optimum adaptation 
 to environment, [b) The ordinary physi- 
 cal education on scientific lines, with the 
 development of the mind by education 
 controlled by psychological reasoning. 
 
 When human development is looked 
 at from these three essential standpoints, 
 it is clear that, in the case of the respiratory 
 group of factors, all those marked and 
 valuable changes which have been insti- 
 tuted through the reform in the treatment 
 of phthisis by open-air methods have 
 arisen in consequence of the more thorough 
 comprehension of these vitally essential 
 factors for the best conduct of life. It 
 has been shown abundantly, in the case 
 of the second group, concerned with 
 digestion, that the tendency of scientific 
 opinion is decidedly to realise that the 
 root-causes of a number of diseases, both 
 mental and physical, are derived from the 
 occurrence of adverse factors directly or 
 indirectly concerned with digestion. The 
 
202 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 reason then that Mr. Fletcher's discovery 
 is of such exceptional importance is that 
 it deals with the essential and fundamental 
 science of digestion. It is for this reason 
 that it is a considerable contribution to 
 humaniculture. Being as it is, therefore, 
 a root-factor or root-question of life, the 
 points raised by its discovery involve so 
 many subjects and cover so wide a field, 
 that it is obvious at present that only the 
 surface of its relationship with other phe- 
 nomena can be dealt with. It is well to 
 repeat that this book does not attempt 
 to do more than indicate suggestions for 
 research, experiment, and practice. 
 
 The greatest service that can be ren- 
 dered by those who are interested in al- 
 truistic work is the discovery of truth in 
 the phenomena of life which can be gen- 
 erally applied to the practical purposes of 
 humaniculture. For the business-like ac- 
 quisition and distribution of knowledge 
 it is necessary to create an apparatus such 
 as the medical sciences, which is admirably 
 adapted to the purpose. We have seen 
 
PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 203 
 
 that it has laboratories for scientific re- 
 search, hospitals for the testing and ap- 
 plication of science, and, finally, medical 
 practitioners to serve as links between the 
 higher organisations and the ordinary cit- 
 izen. This organisation has grown to its 
 present state by the labours and experi- 
 ence of many generations ; the character 
 of its growth has been due to the ex- 
 pression of the enlightened needs of 
 the public, and affords an example of 
 the exceedingly efficient way in which the 
 medical profession has met new wants. 
 
 All progress that depends on the ac- 
 quisition and distribution of knowledge is 
 sane, slow, and assured. Anything vio- 
 lent or revolutionary, that seems to ne- 
 cessitate the adoption of fixed rules of 
 conduct before knowledge justifies them, 
 with many agitations and bothers, is 
 bound to defeat its own object. The 
 knowledge which it is necessary to pos- 
 sess for emergencies and for decisions in- 
 volving compromise, in order to neutralise 
 as well as possible the adverse factors 
 
204 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 which are imposed on those obliged to 
 earn their living under modern conditions, 
 necessitates the co-operation of skilled 
 experts. 
 
 It is clear, then, that the first thing to do 
 is to acquire knowledge as soon as possi- 
 ble of the most positive and unmistakable 
 form. This can only be attained by 
 making use of those trained in the scien- 
 tific methods of the medical sciences. In 
 the same way that the medical sciences 
 have grown and adapted themselves to 
 new needs by new methods and new skill, 
 so they will adapt themselves, if there is a 
 need for their services, in regeneration and 
 humaniculture. 
 
 Dr. Maudsley in his address to the 
 British Medical Association in 1905 said: 
 " For the adoption of the necessary meas- 
 ures to ward off disease and nip it in the 
 bud, the medical man does not get full 
 and fair opportunities. Summoned to the 
 bedside of one actually ill, the disease 
 having got its hold, he sees the sick man 
 for the first time when, being sick, he is 
 
PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 205 
 
 not his true self. Ignorant, therefore, of 
 the patient's constitution and habits, of his 
 temper of body and mind, — all which 
 count for much in the prescribing of 
 sound rules and directions, — he is not 
 qualified to counsel wisely as if he pos- 
 sessed the necessary elements of compari- 
 son between the sound and unsound man 
 to instruct treatment." This last state- 
 ment confirms the suggestion that a 
 partial view is necessarily obtained of 
 patients in a hospital. It would be inac- 
 curate to look on the medical profession 
 otherwise than in the light of people who 
 have stored certain wares which they 
 know they can sell. The public want 
 and pay for disease experts ; so they are 
 supplied. As soon as there is a want for 
 those learned in the principles and prac- 
 tice of regeneration and humaniculture, 
 the medical profession will provide them. 
 Success and conspicuous personal good- 
 health will soon distinguish the successful 
 health doctor. 
 
 In a very remarkable and suggestive 
 
206 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 book by Professor Hericourt of Paris, 
 published in 1904, with the appropriate 
 title of "Les Frontieres de la Maladie," 
 or the beginnings of disease, he shows 
 most clearly and scientifically how what 
 he calls the fixed and more or less incu- 
 rable forms of disease are preceded by 
 curable conditions or stages during which 
 matters can be set right comparatively 
 easily. It is nearly always in consequence 
 of readily ascertainable and common-place 
 primary events that the organism ulti- 
 mately succumbs to the serious condition 
 of disease. Disease is generally an indi- 
 cation that the body has given up the 
 struggle because of the extensive changes 
 that have taken place in consequence of 
 its persistent reaction to adverse factors ; 
 it means, in short, that the disease has 
 won the fight. He points out that one 
 often hears people saying : " What an odd 
 profession yours is. You live on the 
 troubles of other people; the more peo- 
 ple that are ill the more pleased you are." 
 When one asks a doctor whether he is 
 
PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 207 
 
 doing well, IC plenty of work " means that 
 there is plenty of disease. It would 
 clearly be an eminently practical reform 
 to make it to the doctor's interest to re- 
 joice in the freedom of his clientele from 
 illnesses. 
 
 This reform would occur almost with- 
 out notice by the modification of the 
 duties of the general practitioner, who, at 
 the present time, has the most intimate 
 knowledge of the home life of his patients. 
 He is the chosen and often life-long friend 
 of the family, and is sometimes consulted 
 by anxious parents for very small matters. 
 He is frequently called in for the decision 
 of those anxious questions that involve 
 the choice of the life-work of children. 
 Among his brethren the intimate, family 
 doctor-adviser will by far be the nearest 
 to realise the ideal physician of the future. 
 The eminent consultant knows little or 
 nothing of his patient's surroundings and 
 life except from the observations of the 
 general practitioner who calls him to 
 advise in grave emergencies. He, and 
 
208 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 those specialists who are concerned with 
 some restricted department of disease, 
 are clearly typical disease experts, rather 
 than health experts. 
 
 If there were a sufficient number of 
 people who contracted with their doctors, 
 by means of an annual payment, to advise 
 them how to conduct their lives so as to 
 avoid disease and to be as efficient as pos- 
 sible, it would enable them to have the 
 necessary leisure to deal with the new 
 problems that would be offered for solu- 
 tion. One certain and incontrovertible 
 fact brought out in the recent history 
 of the medical sciences is the speedy 
 way that the most difficult problems are 
 solved by the extensive co-operation in 
 work that characterises the present organ- 
 isation of the sciences. It must be re- 
 membered that in sociology as in biology 
 the function preserves and develops the 
 organ. This is well illustrated by the 
 extraordinary development of dentistry in 
 recent times. Diseases of the teeth, of 
 modern origin, have led to the develop- 
 
PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 209 
 
 ment of a wonder among the exact sci- 
 ences. If the kidneys and liver were as 
 accessible as the teeth, humaniculture 
 would have made a new world for us 
 before this. If there was payment pro- 
 vided for health experts, the present 
 medical practitioners would soon devote 
 their attention to the study of those 
 all-important minor ailments that occur 
 in the early and curable stages of dis- 
 ease, and it would not take long before 
 the most prosperous and useful members 
 of the profession would be as expert at 
 the prevention of disease as dentists are 
 in saving teeth. 
 
 There is a decided indication of a grow- 
 ing demand for the profitable services of 
 medical men, too, in the financial interests 
 of employers of labour. An interesting 
 experiment was carried out about thirty- 
 six kilometers from Paris in a mill where 
 there were employed forty-four men and 
 seventy-five women and children. The 
 medical officer of the mill first saw to the 
 sanitary appliances and regulations, giving 
 14 
 
2 1 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 careful instruction and explanations. He 
 gave some twelve practical instruction 
 classes to the mothers that lasted three or 
 four hours each ; these lessons were on 
 diet and cooking, with cleanliness, the way 
 to take body temperatures, and how to 
 look at the children's throats. This ex- 
 periment was entirely successful, though 
 the doctor lived in Paris. There was not 
 a single death in three years. There were 
 one or two cases of scarlet fever and 
 diphtheria that were promptly and effec- 
 tively isolated. The men workers were 
 allowed two hours' rest in the middle of 
 the day, and the women two and one half 
 hours, so that they could prepare the food. 
 Each employee was entitled to fifteen 
 days' holiday at full pay in the year. 
 Alcoholism was unknown ; most of the 
 workmen became total abstainers. The 
 regulations were adopted in consequence 
 of the suggestions of the doctor, who acted 
 as arbitrator in the interests alike of the 
 employer and of the workers. This ex- 
 periment was not philanthropic but finan- 
 
PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 211 
 
 rial, the employer realising that he had 
 better value in work from healthy hands. 
 
 Similar results on a much larger scale 
 have been obtained by Mr. Patterson of 
 Dayton, Ohio, and by Messrs. Cadbury 
 and Lever in England, as well as in many 
 other instances too numerous to mention. 
 As soon as manufacturers thoroughly 
 realise that there is money to be made 
 by seeing to it that their workers are 
 healthy and efficient, there will be as much 
 competition in "welfare work" as there 
 is now in having the latest machinery. 
 If this were desired by employers there 
 would be no lack of competent medical 
 men who would be able to satisfy the 
 requirements. 
 
 The ideal state of humaniculture will be 
 attained when every man, woman, and 
 child possess the knowledge that will en- 
 able them to attain and maintain their 
 optimum efficiency; it is scarcely neces- 
 sary to say that such an ideal is very 
 far off unless there is general and even 
 national co-operation. To carry out this 
 
212 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 ideal, it is necessary to acquire and dis- 
 tribute as much positive knowledge as 
 possible. These ends can be best secured 
 by the payment for research and instruc- 
 tion in humaniculture and by the establish- 
 ment of laboratories and professorships 
 at the universities. Short of these larger 
 aims it is certain that the discovery of 
 truth in any form through the practice of 
 private humaniculture, provided always 
 that it is properly applied, is advantage- 
 ous to the individual and the world in 
 general. 
 
 The distribution of knowledge for prac- 
 tical application is the easier of the two 
 desiderata, and one that could be well 
 carried out by the formation of associa- 
 tions for the study of humaniculture that 
 would exchange experiences, encourage 
 discussions, and pay for lecturers. It is 
 obvious that the end of humaniculture is 
 education, with its basis in the knowledge 
 of the necessary aptitudes of the body 
 and mind, and instruction of a plain and 
 unmistakable character in the care, use, 
 
PRIVATE HUMANICULTURE 213 
 
 and development of the body. This sub- 
 ject is essentially a mothers' subject first 
 of all, and one that Mr. Fletcher saw 
 clearly was, as he expressed it, "founda- 
 tion and not steeple work," in his favour- 
 ite scheme of Social Quarantine. The 
 honourable professions of the future will 
 surely be the seekers and the teachers of 
 truth, researchers and distributors who will 
 enable the world, which has waited so long, 
 to realise its final and supreme mission, 
 the science of the perfection of man. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 
 
 M. Solvay of Brussels, the well-known 
 educational philanthropist, stated to the 
 author that when he started in business 
 he was able to forecast the present com- 
 mercial development and progress, and by 
 this means was able to make his large 
 fortune. "With his increased experience 
 he is now more convinced than ever of 
 the necessity for sociology being placed 
 on the basis of the positive sciences, by 
 the same methods that he has pursued in 
 his business. If this is not done, the con- 
 ditions to which society is proceeding will 
 revolutionise the present state of affairs, 
 and the world will find itself without a 
 science of positive sociology for legislative 
 reconstruction. He felt, at the time of 
 the interview, that he was fast becoming 
 an old man, and that nothing remained 
 
HUMANI CULTURE AND THE STATE 21 5 
 
 for him to do but to " crystallise his 
 ideas," as he expressed it, in some per- 
 manent form. He therefore founded first 
 an Institute of Physiology, with the object 
 of increasing men's basic efficiency, and 
 next door to it an Institute of Sociology, 
 to make, record, and organise observations 
 on existing social phenomena from a posi- 
 tive point of view. Since then he has 
 added a beautiful building to his monu- 
 mental group in Pare Leopold to be used 
 as a School of Commerce. He wished 
 thus to intimate, as Comte pointed out, 
 that the positive basis of Sociology was 
 to be found in the application of the all- 
 inclusive science of Human Physiology, 
 or, as it is called here, Humaniculture. 
 
 Probably no statement would meet with 
 less opposition than the general proposi- 
 tion that to understand a subject it is 
 necessary first of all to acquaint one's self 
 with its factors, or the subsidiary subjects 
 that appertain to it. This opinion would 
 be held with vehemence and in the strong- 
 est and most uncompromising way in a 
 
2l6 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 question, let us say, of a locomotive or 
 the construction of a bridge; in short, in 
 the case of all positive subjects, especially 
 those that are submitted to the test of 
 superadded weight or action. On the 
 other hand, in all those manifold subjects 
 dealing with human phenomena such a 
 statement would meet with doubts, fixed 
 ideas, prejudices, doctrines, much discus- 
 sion, a most insignificant basis of agree- 
 ment, in fact, almost any one feels qualified 
 to give and act on his opinion. Yet there 
 are no subjects which are so complex, so 
 difficult to understand, so full of pitfalls 
 and errors. The foundation of the under- 
 standing of such subjects must clearly be 
 the science of humaniculture, in the widest 
 sense of the word, at all ages, in health, 
 physical and mental education, disease, 
 and degeneration. The only side of the 
 phenomena of these subjects that we are 
 taught to think necessitates skilled and 
 expert opinions is in those cases that in- 
 volve actual disease. If such scientific 
 knowledge is necessary in disease, it is 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 2\"J 
 
 surely infinitely more necessary in ques- 
 tions of education, reformatories, and 
 crime. In this business-like and scientific 
 age we are as unbusiness-like and as un- 
 scientific as we can possibly be in all those 
 questions of regeneration and humanicul- 
 ture, yet there are no subjects where the 
 calm directing influence of positive knowl- 
 edge is more needed. We all know more 
 or less definitely that it is wanted, but 
 there seem to be no concerted attempts to 
 attain it. 
 
 It is proposed to show that a Depart- 
 ment of Humaniculture is becoming more 
 and more necessary for the conduct of 
 modern government ; the urgent questions 
 calling for solution with greater and greater 
 insistence are those social problems con- 
 cerned with physical and mental education, 
 crime, pauperism, and the unemployed. 
 A government without a Department of 
 Humaniculture is in the same position as 
 that of a man without sufficient science to 
 conduct his life. There is an urgent 
 want for organised research and experiment 
 
2l8 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 by governments to elucidate and remedy 
 the great and growing ills of society. 
 There are few members of the representa- 
 tive governing bodies who would allow 
 themselves to direct operations in the 
 manufacture of guns, but there would not 
 be one of these legislators who would have 
 any scruple against adjudicating and hav- 
 ing the most decided opinion on any of 
 the many questions involving human 
 beings. Yet the latter points require 
 wider and at the same time more spe- 
 cialised knowledge and deal with infinitely 
 more difficult subjects. The result of this 
 state of affairs is divided counsels, expen- 
 sive and ill-conceived experiments, and 
 a very insignificant degree of progress for 
 the work involved. The wrong issues are 
 constantly being submitted for adjudication 
 leading to worse and worse confusion. 
 
 In a popular magazine published in 
 England Mr. Arnold White writes on 
 "The Waste of Charity." The article 
 well illustrates the confusing and contra- 
 dictory views which are widely held, 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 219 
 
 though not so frequently expressed with 
 such uncompromising freedom as the fol- 
 lowing : " Our civilisation is largely run 
 in the interests of invalids. Ill-health 
 is almost universal among the women 
 of the poorer classes in the great towns. 
 Mothers work. Children are thus handi- 
 capped for life before they draw breath. 
 When the child is born it is fed on arti- 
 ficial milks and foods. When it cries 
 with pain it is soothed with patent drugs. 
 Thus the boys and girls are anaemic and 
 stunted undesirables, with bad teeth. We 
 can continue the present system of nour- 
 ishing and propagating lunatics, paupers, 
 and criminals and of multiplying unem- 
 ployables till about the year 1925. So 
 far as human events can be ascertained 
 before they happen, the survival of Great 
 Britain as a great power is impossible after 
 that date, if we continue our ghastly sys- 
 tem of indiscriminate charity to the fit and 
 unfit, to the vicious and the virtuous, to 
 the guilty and the innocent. In view of 
 these facts I have asked some eminent 
 
220 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 physicians to answer a series of questions, 
 of which the following is the last : ' In 
 your opinion is it possible for the medi- 
 cal profession to speak out boldly on the 
 subject of the breeding and degeneration 
 of the people ? And are the habits of 
 hospital patients such as to render support 
 of the hospitals an endowment of thrift- 
 lessness, undue consumption of drink, 
 improvident marriage, and the manufac- 
 ture of the unemployable? In other 
 words, would not the destruction of every 
 hospital in England sterilise a consider- 
 able portion of the undesirable element in 
 our population ? ' In every case but one 
 I have met with deep appreciation of the 
 truth of the facts set forth, of the evils 
 that require redressing, and the need for 
 prompt action ; but always coupled with 
 the statement that the medical profession 
 has nothing to do with the moral char- 
 acter, physical condition, or origin of the 
 disease of the patient. Whole-hearted to 
 the process of curing him, without refer- 
 ence to any other consideration whatso- 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 221 
 
 ever, is the only duty recognised by the 
 medical profession. This is a noble 
 ideal ; but some, at all events, of the 
 money given by generous subscribers to 
 the hospitals is devoted, not to waste, but 
 to the generation of vice and crime and 
 to the perpetuation of sorrow. Statesmen 
 stand by watching the contest between the 
 battalions of diseased inheritors of misery 
 and crime and the struggling army of the 
 prudent and self-controlled. Where a 
 man is criminal, pauperised, or diseased, 
 he begets diseased, pauper, or criminal 
 posterity. His children are handed on as 
 burdens to posterity by the charity of our 
 day. . . . Lunacy is galloping ahead, — 
 one in two hundred and ninety-three of 
 the total population is a lunatic. In 1859 
 only one in five hundred and thirty-six 
 was a lunatic. But the officially known 
 lunatics are to be supplemented by the 
 lunatics uncounted by the State." This 
 article shows the chaotic and curious views 
 which are held on the subject of degene- 
 ration. The only remedy that is appar- 
 
222 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 ently suggested is that hospitals should 
 be abolished, a remedy that would be as 
 practicable as hanging all brewers and 
 publicans. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to repeat the 
 facts and figures of the different forms of 
 degeneration ; it is such common knowl- 
 edge that now all admit it. The only 
 difference is the attitude assumed towards 
 it. There can be no question that such 
 views as those expressed by Mr. Arnold 
 White do great harm. They are widely 
 held among the privileged classes ; the 
 poor who live cheek by jowl with actual 
 or possible criminals, paupers, and the so- 
 called thriftless know better ; they are not 
 able to express themselves in scientific 
 phraseology, but, knowing more, they are 
 nearer that state of knowledge where 
 " tout savoir est tout pardonner." The 
 lessons of despair, of hard, miserable, end- 
 less experience show them only too clearly 
 that drink, pauperism, thriftlessness, crime, 
 disease, and death are the inevitable conse- 
 quences of the environment that our want 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 223 
 
 of foresight makes us pay for over and 
 over again in its endless manufacture of 
 the degenerate. 
 
 There are many people who hold the 
 most extreme views on heredity in con- 
 nection with crime, etc., their evidence 
 resting on similar ground to that of the 
 Voit standard and Physiology's official 
 explanation of mastication and swallowing, 
 that is to say, on evidence founded on 
 experiments on the lower animals (if not 
 entirely so in the former, at any rate in the 
 latter instance). It is not to be wondered 
 at that the medical officers of hospitals 
 should hold gloomy and pessimistic views 
 on social questions. They are engaged in 
 seeing an endless series of the diseased and 
 degenerated coming to the hospital, from 
 surroundings of which they have no real 
 knowledge, nor, as we have seen, of their 
 antecedents. They are so much in con- 
 tact with disease during the whole of their 
 active lives that they must almost neces- 
 sarily look on it as inevitable and its 
 causes beyond any possibility of remedy. 
 
224 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 The only people in England who are 
 concerned with active and practical regen- 
 eration are those in the Salvation Army, 
 and in the Church Army, where one finds 
 hopefulness and confidence; and where, 
 though their efforts are without science, 
 they are wonderfully successful. Science 
 should study the questions of the trans- 
 mission of such acquired characteristics as 
 crime, etc., at Dr. Barnardo's Homes. He 
 does not find in practical experience that 
 it is necessary to reject children with a 
 bad pedigree, he does not find it neces- 
 sary to inquire about it, yet the children 
 he takes are those who are abandoned by 
 their parents, who are derived from those 
 classes about whom we are so disturbed. 
 No one would wish to question that there 
 are such lamentable occurrences as heredi- 
 tary mental disease, in rare cases ineradi- 
 cable hereditary crime and drink, also that 
 there is a vast amount of hereditary ten- 
 dency to degeneration. But it is neces- 
 sary to realise that here is actually an 
 experiment where, with altered environ- 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 225 
 
 merit, this unpromising material was able 
 to provide no less than some twenty 
 thousand who have emigrated to Canada, 
 and of whom it is said that no less than 
 ninety-eight per cent have turned out 
 well. This surely shows that there are 
 far more urgent questions than the steril- 
 isation of the unfit. ' How often will it be 
 necessary to point out that to draw con- 
 clusions from the study of guinea-pigs, 
 pigeons, chickens, etc., and apply them 
 to human beings is not only inaccurate 
 and misleading, but unscientific in the 
 highest degree ? Human beings must be 
 continually studied in human surround- 
 ings by competent scientific observers ; un- 
 fortunately there is certainly no lack of 
 material from which to establish definite 
 principles. 
 
 As previously mentioned there are few 
 people who have rendered such great ser- 
 vices to humanity as Mr. Z. R. Brockway 
 in his experiment of the substitution of 
 reformation for the punishment of crime. 
 The following quotations from one of his 
 
226 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 reports will serve to show that he did not 
 nurture any undue tenderness or blinded 
 prejudice in the favour of criminals. The 
 personal observation of some fifty thou- 
 sand criminals enabled him to write the 
 following : " They belong to the grade of 
 humanity which is inferior. The whole 
 inmate population may be divided into 
 two grades of inferiority, — those whose 
 defectiveness is very apparent, and others 
 whose mental and moral defects are con- 
 cealed under good (and sometimes quite 
 brilliant) capabilities in given directions. 
 About one half of them have not been 
 unfamiliar with life in institutions of one 
 kind or another, with arrests and impris- 
 onments, temporary or prolonged, in sta- 
 tion ! house, jail, or prisons for juvenile 
 offenders or misdemeanants ; while some 
 of them had been imprisoned for serious 
 crimes. More than sixty per cent of 
 them are practically illiterate on admission 
 to the reformatory, and at least one third 
 of the whole are from a class of dull 
 scholars in the public primary schools, or 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 227 
 
 truants who burrow in lanes and alleys, 
 where they form the worst associations 
 and personal habits. They are without 
 the ordinary amount of imagination, and 
 without the common ambition of the non- 
 criminal of their class of society. As a 
 whole the prisoners are indolent, unstable, 
 reckless, and unable to compete with nor- 
 mal workers, and perhaps they are as 
 unable as they are indisposed to contend 
 with the temptations of vice and crime. 
 Many of them are dishonest, dishonour- 
 able, merciless, and base. They are of a 
 class naturally, and it may be inevitably, 
 criminal." The work at the remarkable 
 institution of Elmira was carried on with- 
 out the resources and interest which so 
 important an experiment should have com- 
 manded. In spite of all this, its success 
 was extraordinary, in that out of no less 
 than ten thousand, at least ninety per cent 
 of such unpromising material as would 
 have made most men despair were re- 
 turned to society as useful citizens. 
 Many other experiments besides those 
 
228 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 of General Booth in the Social Wing of 
 the Salvation Army could be quoted to 
 tell the same tale, that any efforts made 
 practically and continuously to effect re- 
 generation have nearly all been followed 
 by conspicuous success, conspicuous fail- 
 ure existing mainly in our dangerous 
 imaginations. 
 
 In the case of disease, scientific men 
 have acquired positive knowledge in the 
 application of science to its treatment, and 
 so ought science to be used in the treat- 
 ment of social ills and diseases. The 
 medical profession has, as we have seen, 
 devoted itself, up to the present, mostly to 
 the acute deviations from health. Crime, 
 pauperism, thriftlessness, intemperance, 
 etc., are instances of aberrant instincts, or 
 the symptoms of those chronic deviations 
 from optimum health in the uneducated 
 and in those who have become degen- 
 erated from environment. Brockway, 
 Barnardo, Kellogg, and General Booth 
 stand for environment against heredity. 
 
 In the bewildering complexity of these 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 229 
 
 human phenomena, measurement, which 
 is science, alone will bring progress and 
 order where now none exist. If we were 
 able to measure man's deviation from his 
 optimum health, we should then know 
 what it costs in efficiency and human 
 value to live in a slum, and the effect on 
 the physical and mental machinery esti- 
 mated in black and white. Science is the 
 only true charity and the only true remedy. 
 Are not the phenomena that so disturb 
 us the effects of environment ? The asso- 
 ciation of crime areas and bad environment 
 is surely not accidental. Would it not be 
 as certainly possible to produce a criminal 
 in the surroundings of the "submerged 
 tenth " as it was for Barnardo to make a 
 self-respecting and self-supporting citizen 
 from their children? "Environment makes 
 the man" ought to be written large in every 
 school ; it ought to be burnt into the brains 
 of law-makers and judges. How does en- 
 vironment make the man ? What is the 
 cost of foul air ? of bad food, of bad feed- 
 ing ? Why is this man degenerated ? why 
 
230 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 is the next one diseased and his brother a 
 lunatic? Why is it that some parents 
 have idiotic offspring? If they knew 
 their condition, if enough was known to 
 predict with scientific certainty that the 
 disastrous event would have occurred, the 
 parents might have been saved from de- 
 generation, and would not, in their igno- 
 rance, have committed the supreme crime 
 of bringing such offspring into the world. 
 No; the fact is written everywhere, that 
 at no time in the world has there been a 
 concerted attempt to discover man's ap- 
 titudes and capabilities and to make full 
 use of them. 
 
 If it is conceded that a case has been 
 made out for the necessity for the ac- 
 quisition and distribution of the science 
 of humaniculture, it will be seen that it 
 is to the direct and indirect interest of 
 every citizen that it should be carried 
 out as soon as possible. A matter that 
 is the concern of every citizen is clearly 
 the business of the State, who alone can 
 undertake so vast a task. The first duty 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 23 1 
 
 of a department of humaniculture in 
 government would be the acquisition of 
 knowledge by the classification of that 
 which is already available, and the active 
 prosecution of scientific research. As 
 soon as it was clearly advisable it would 
 be necessary to create the apparatus for 
 the distribution of suitable and reliable 
 information. These duties would slowly 
 become administrative as knowledge and 
 experience was gained. The necessary 
 practice could be obtained by the estab- 
 lishment of experimental prisons, refor- 
 matories, workhouses, and institutions 
 for paupers, drunkards, etc., with labour 
 colonies, where observation and experi- 
 mental research and the education of 
 prison and other State officers could be 
 carried out. The work could only be 
 done by trained observers and practi- 
 tioners of the medical sciences. The 
 distribution of knowledge could be se- 
 cured by the establishment of subsidiary 
 provincial and municipal centres that 
 would ultimately supply officers for the 
 
232 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 administration of the institutions which 
 come under the scope of regeneration and 
 humaniculture. The department would 
 grow slowly and surely, its actions should 
 be extended with the greatest care, and 
 only extended when it was clear that effi- 
 cient men were trained for the new duties. 
 Nothing would form so harmful and ret- 
 rograde an influence as a tendency to 
 undertake duties for which there was 
 more enthusiasm than administrative ca- 
 pability and experience. It would be 
 advisable that the most generous provi- 
 sion be made for the reward and pay- 
 ment for private research. 
 
 The great duty of the department 
 would necessarily be that of education. 
 It would be advisable to appoint medi- 
 cal officers for regular inspection of the 
 schools, so that defects of sight and hear- 
 ing could be detected, and early symptoms 
 of infective and contagious disease. The 
 general condition of the children could 
 be noted, and such measures taken that 
 were thought to be advisable. The medi- 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 233 
 
 cal officer could take charge of education 
 in humaniculture with physical exercises. 
 One of the first duties of the central de- 
 partment would be to ascertain with the 
 least possible delay the elementary or 
 necessary information that should be im- 
 parted to children in schools: (1) On 
 human and general Anatomy ; (2) On 
 human Physiology; (3) On Psychology; 
 so that they would be enabled to avoid 
 the unfavourable factors of degeneration, 
 and make as much use as possible of the 
 favourable factors. In this way alone 
 could Huxley's conception of education 
 be carried out : " Education is the instruc- 
 tion of the intellect in the laws of nature ; 
 under which name are included not merely 
 things and their forces but men and their 
 ways, and the fashioning of the affections 
 and the will into an earnest and loving 
 desire to move in harmony with those 
 laws. For me education means neither 
 more nor less than this. Anything that 
 professes to call itself education must be 
 laid bv this standard ; and if it fail to 
 
234 HUMANI CULTURE 
 
 stand the test I will not call it education, 
 whatever may be the force of the authority 
 or numbers on the other side." 
 
 No nation is so fitted to carry out the 
 work of humaniculture for itself and 
 Humanity as is the United States. The 
 country has shown itself pre-eminently 
 capable in production, the science of " do- 
 ing things." It is free from the entang- 
 ling customs of the past that clog the 
 wheels of progress in Europe. It most 
 nearly realises Spencer's ideal : " The in- 
 tellectual progress of a people or of an 
 individual is by nothing so clearly meas- 
 ured as by the hold they have on the prin- 
 ciple of causation." The enormous and 
 varied annual emigration makes the prob- 
 lem of humaniculture peculiarly urgent. 
 The material progress of the United States 
 has been largely made by men who have 
 shown the greatest readiness to " scrap " 
 old notions and try new and better 
 methods. The success of the United 
 States Department of Agriculture and its 
 widespread usefulness is a fine example 
 
HUMANICULTURE AND THE STATE 235 
 
 of what can be done on such lines. It 
 has more money to spare than European 
 countries. It has been estimated that the 
 United States spends no less than six 
 hundred million dollars annually on deal- 
 ing with crime. If this enormous sum, 
 together with that expended in other ways 
 on disease, began to be diminished, it 
 would provide more and more funds for 
 the extension of humaniculture. May the 
 crowning achievement of the most pro- 
 gressive country be that of leading the 
 way to a civilisation that will surpass 
 that of Greece as much as the present 
 age surpasses it in the solid progress of 
 the sciences and their application ! 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 It has been shown that the medical 
 sciences arose in consequence of the ur- 
 gent need of the sick. The growth of 
 the organisation affords an instructive il- 
 lustration of co-operative evolution in the 
 discovery and the application of knowl- 
 edge. The commencement was in con- 
 sequence of pre-eminent success in practice 
 by individuals, and above all in their abil- 
 ity to explain the reasons for their success. 
 Such a man was Hippocrates, who would 
 have gathered a number of pupils round 
 him and thus established a school of 
 thought and practice. These old pioneers 
 comprised in themselves all the varied 
 special activities that now occupy the 
 exclusive attention of highly trained and 
 efficient specialists. In these days there 
 are researchers and teachers in laboratories 
 
CONCLUSION 237 
 
 who deal more with general than prac- 
 tical science. Many times in history suc- 
 cessful practice has been for long periods 
 ahead of scientific explanation. The 
 pioneer work is, as we have seen, carried 
 out in hospitals. The end of the whole 
 system is in the faculty that the ordinary 
 citizen possesses of having this science 
 brought to his doors by the general 
 practitioner, in whose hands the banner 
 of progress will be worthily held in the 
 more intimate work that regeneration and 
 humaniculture will entail. It is clear that 
 it would be inconceivable for the compli- 
 cated sciences concerned in disease to be 
 distributed to the general population, so 
 that there is no prospect that disease ex- 
 perts with their present aims and experi- 
 ence can become health educators. 
 
 It is only natural that the opinions of 
 those who are engaged in the practice of 
 the medical sciences in laboratories and 
 hospitals should hold views that are 
 largely influenced by their habitual occu- 
 pation. For instance, it would not be 
 
238 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 unfair to describe Professor Metchnikoff's 
 view of human nature as being microbic, 
 and that of the " eminent physicians " 
 who, Mr. Arnold White tells us, are in the 
 state of " deeply appreciating " the truth 
 of his views, to be seeing their fellow 
 creatures through hospital spectacles. 
 The only reason in alluding once more to 
 these views is to recollect that they tend 
 to retard the realisation of such applica- 
 tions of knowledge as humaniculture. 
 
 The great and inestimable value of the 
 medical sciences to humanity is not only 
 that it has diminished the horrors and 
 dangers of disease by prevention and cure, 
 but, above all, that there has been accu- 
 mulated a magnificent capital of positive 
 science. In the story of Mr. Fletcher 
 the attitude of the medical profession 
 towards his discovery can be said to illus- 
 trate two important facts : 
 
 (1) That there was a want of orienta- 
 tion towards the ideals of regeneration and 
 humaniculture, because they had not dis- 
 covered the facts themselves. Another 
 
CONCLUSION 239 
 
 point that was brought out was the in- 
 ability to measure the degree of health and 
 fitness of an individual. It has been 
 pointed out that where there is no meas- 
 urement there is no, or at any rate little, 
 science of the improvement of man. 
 
 (2) On the other hand, the immense 
 value of positive knowledge is shown by 
 the fact that unless there had been the 
 work of Pasteur, so ably followed by 
 Metchnikoff, Koch, and the rest of the 
 army of bacteriologists, we should not 
 have known how important it was to 
 diminish the putrescence in the intestinal 
 canal which was looked on as inevitable 
 and natural. From this source comes, 
 too, the scientific demonstration how it is 
 that the body protects itself against mi- 
 crobes, and that this protection is pro- 
 portionate to the health of the individual. 
 Without the patient, unceasing labours of 
 those practising the medical sciences there 
 would not have been the growing convic- 
 tion so ably voiced by Bouchard and his 
 school, Mott and many others, that the 
 
24° HUMANICULTURE 
 
 root-cause of disease consisted in auto- 
 toxaemia or self-poisoning from an un- 
 scientific adaptation to life. Without the 
 knowledge and organisation of the medi- 
 cal sciences, there would have been little to 
 distinguish Mr. Fletcher's discovery from 
 the numbers of fads, etc., that trouble us 
 from time to time. 
 
 Looking out on the world phenomena 
 generally one finds that the other mani- 
 festations of activity are, broadly speaking, 
 similar to those of the medical sciences 
 in that they are concerned with the satis- 
 faction of man's most immediate needs. 
 After all, one must recollect that a man 
 who is cold gets himself clothes, a shelter, 
 and a fire before he turns to the need in 
 the next order of importance ; in the same 
 way the world's activities, that are the 
 expression of men's needs, have been de- 
 voted to the means of supplying the most 
 urgent of them in an economical manner, 
 so as to save labour as much as possible. 
 The material progress is by nothing so 
 well shown as by the evolution of a rail- 
 
CONCLUSION 241 
 
 way. It resembles a living organism ; it 
 has almost endowed itself with a nervous 
 system, with so delicate a mechanism that 
 now one brain can control its activities, 
 where many were previously necessary 
 with their divided counsels. So in other 
 directions where it is a question of win- 
 ning or researching and of distributing or 
 applying material or science, the woods 
 have been cleared, and the roads laid for 
 those who follow to walk over. Life is 
 easier, means of communication are grow- 
 ing and extending, news and thoughts are 
 distributed from one end of the world to 
 the other faster than the world moves 
 round the sun. The world is triumph- 
 antly winning its battle over material 
 nature ; the fight is no longer so eager and 
 hurried, the worst has been left behind. 
 Now there is a pause with more leisure, 
 the cost is being counted, the lists of the 
 killed and wounded are being scanned. 
 There is the same anxiety that France had 
 after Napoleon, when she asked herself 
 
 where were the bravest, the strongest of 
 16 
 
242 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 her sons who should have bred and 
 trained the future generation to be 
 stronger and more glorious than the last ? 
 Every country is now asking itself what 
 is the good of the wonderful and magnifi- 
 cent facilities of life if man, the lord of 
 creation, is to become a miserable degen- 
 erate ? They see that the saving of effort 
 is being too dearly paid for, if the next 
 generation is to include countless unem- 
 ployable inefficients, degenerates, and 
 criminals. And thus free rein is given 
 to gloomy imaginings, all sorts and de- 
 scriptions of views are current, men 
 eagerly discuss Utopias that are only to 
 consist of men like themselves; no degen- 
 erates are to be admitted ; remedies are 
 being eagerly discussed. The world, in 
 short, is pausing, and thinking uneasily in 
 its leisure before it turns once more to this 
 new task that presents itself, so that it can 
 work with refreshed energies towards the 
 final and unending task, the perfection of 
 man, which is humaniculture. 
 
 Humaniculture is the foremost of the 
 
CONCLUSION 243 
 
 arts, for it realises not only the perfections, 
 but the perfectibility, of man. These 
 ideals made gods of men and men of gods 
 in the Grecian mythology. It united all 
 that was great and noble in the nation to 
 the one glorious aim of human perfection. 
 Their reward was great ; it has left behind 
 a record of art that ennobled artist and 
 subject alike, and a literature that has en- 
 nobled mankind. Such a level can never 
 be attained except through the adoption of 
 a similar national movement. The litera- 
 ture of Greece has been clung to with the 
 strongest and the most instinctive per- 
 sistency by the best minds in modern 
 times. Its lessons can be said to be 
 intimately mixed up with the foundations 
 of all that is great and abiding in our 
 civilisation. The mighty hold of classical 
 ideals on the older universities, with their 
 conceptions of physical education, is no 
 accident : its explanation must be found in 
 the conviction that they are instinctively 
 holding on to truth, and that posterity 
 will justify them. One great lesson that 
 
244 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 is taught is, that a noble civilisation has a 
 feeble grasp on life where its practice is 
 not founded on positive science, however 
 grand and abiding the utterances of their 
 philosophers may be. 
 
 Old Hippocrates said that " it was 
 only by medicine that one can arrive at 
 some knowledge of human nature, — but 
 on one condition, to embrace it in its true 
 generality." 
 
 Humboldt, too, tells us that " the final 
 goal of man, that is to say, the goal that 
 is imposed on him by the eternal and 
 unbreakable exigencies of reason, . . . 
 consists in, as far as possible, the harmoni- 
 ous development of all his qualities in a 
 complete and united whole." 
 
 Seidleitz says, " that moral and rational 
 life consists in the carrying out of all the 
 functions of the body to a satisfactory and 
 proportionate degree." 
 
 Bacon predicted a great future for 
 medicine in its applications to the progress 
 of hygiene, in civilisation and social better- 
 ment, in the physique and mind of man. 
 
CONCLUSION 245 
 
 The abiding impulse of the human 
 spirit is towards perfection. The mission 
 of the social teacher is to make this impulse 
 both conscious and positive. There have 
 been many panaceas, many definitions of 
 what the Greeks called " the sovereign 
 good " for humanity. It has been said that 
 in the time of Grecian civilisation, when 
 such matters were clearly interesting, there 
 were no less than two hundred and eighty- 
 eight counted. Heraclites, Socrates, Plato, 
 and even Aristotle, and many others, were 
 continually using their minds for the pur- 
 pose of subtle word-spinning, for the 
 manufacture of fine theories of magnifi- 
 cent proportions resting on the slenderest 
 of foundations. When Aristotle said that 
 the greatest knowledge was the least use- 
 ful, the practical Epicurus denied it flatly, 
 and protested that the only way to judge 
 knowledge was to know to what extent 
 it contributed to man's happiness. He 
 brought those wonderful and haughty in- 
 tellects down to earth, down to the every- 
 day commonplaces. His final definition 
 
246 HUMANICULTURE 
 
 of philosophy was that it is not a pure and 
 theoretical science : it is a practical law of 
 action ; even more, it is itself an action, an 
 energy that obtains by speech and reason 
 a happy life. We want an Epicurus in 
 these days to bring us down to earth ; the 
 great social phenomena that confuse us by 
 their magnitude, whether it be in their 
 magnificence and grandeur or in their hor- 
 ror and misery, — are they after all any- 
 thing more than the phenomena of the 
 actions of one mind multiplied by thou- 
 sands or millions ? We do not know our- 
 selves. The greatest "sovereign good," 
 to use the phrase of the old Greeks, is 
 first to know ourselves, our Anatomy 
 and Physiology, our capabilities and apti- 
 tudes, and then, with all the resources of 
 the experienced Old World, to cultivate 
 ourselves. Our old Mother Earth will 
 no longer have to listen to the hoarse 
 discordant cry of the weak and degen- 
 erate, battling with death. May she be 
 gladdened with the harmonious song of 
 her sons rejoicing in their common heri- 
 
CONCLUSION 247 
 
 tage of all that is good and great in na- 
 ture, — a heritage made glorious through 
 Humaniculture, the golden science of 
 perfect man, the last " sovereign good " 
 of all ! 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adhvaya, second, description 
 of optimum health in, n 
 
 Alcohol, craving for, 83 
 
 Alimentary canal, three inches 
 of, under our control, 51, 
 100; bifurcation of, 52 
 
 Alleviation, aim of, 12; of dis- 
 ease, 14-15, 147, 154 
 
 "American method" of pro- 
 duction, 122-125, 191, 234 
 
 Anderson, Dr. William G., 39, 
 166; report on experiments 
 with Mr. Fletcher, 40-47 
 
 Animals, wild, rearing of the 
 young, 9; adaptation to en- 
 vironment, 118 
 
 Anti-toxins, 180 
 
 Appetite, effect of thorough in- 
 salivation upon, 36 ; as an in- 
 dicator in the choice of food, 
 69; the strongest stimulus 
 to the flow of gastric juice, 
 70-72 ; phenomena of, 73-83 
 
 Aristotle, 130, 245 
 
 Asclepiades, 136 
 
 Atrophy of muscle, 53, 55 
 
 Augustus Cassar, treatment of, 
 
 "37 
 Avicennus, 134 
 
 Bacon, 244 
 
 Bacteriology, 16; laboratories 
 
 of, 160-162; discoveries of, 
 
 179-182 
 Barnardo, Dr., regeneration 
 
 work, 4, 120, 224, 229 
 
 Bernard, Claude, 163-164, 165 
 
 Bichat, 172 
 
 Biot, 25 
 
 Blondlot, 72 «. 
 
 Booth, General, regeneration 
 work, 5 ; his " Religion for 
 Every Day," 194-195 
 
 Bouchard, Prof., 75; on auto- 
 toxaemia and "retarded nu- 
 trition," 182-186 
 
 Bowditch, Prof. Henry P., 39 
 
 Brain, action of, in automatic 
 movements, 65 ; action of, in 
 mastication, 66 
 
 Breakfast, absence of appetite 
 for, 75 
 
 British Medical Association, 30, 
 
 33.47 
 
 Brockway, Z. R., regeneration 
 work, 4, 119, 225 
 
 Buccal cavities and buccal pas- 
 sage, 63-64 
 
 Buddha, pessimism of, * 
 
 Cabbages, Cato on, 140- 
 141 
 
 Cambridge, University of, Eng- 
 land, first nutrition experi- 
 ments at, 30-39 
 
 Carbohydrates, as taken in the 
 Yale tests, 41-42 ; Mr. Fletch- 
 er's preference for, 46 
 
 Cato, as an amateur physician, 
 140-141 
 
 Cereal foods, 78 
 
 Cheese, 108 
 
250 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Chemistry, physiological, 116; 
 pathological, 159 
 
 Child, the, qualities of, at birth, 
 6 J conditions to which it is 
 exposed, 7 ; penalties of ex- 
 posure, 9 ; rearing of, 10 
 
 Chittenden, Prof. R. H., 39; 
 on optimum nitrogen supply, 
 8; account of the Yale ex- 
 amination of Mr. Fletcher, 
 40-47 ; undertakes the Yale 
 experiments in Fletcherism, 
 
 47>49 
 
 Church Army of Great Britain, 
 5, 224 
 
 Cicero, 26 
 
 Comte, 21 
 
 Consumption, history of treat- 
 ment of, 152-154 
 
 Criminology, 5 
 
 Deglutition, process of, 
 61-68 
 
 DSjerine, Professor, 107 
 
 Dentistry, development of, 208 
 
 Dextrine, 78-79 
 
 Digestion, see Mastication, In- 
 salivation, Appetite 
 
 Digestion-ash, effect of thor- 
 ough nutrition upon, 37, 41 ; 
 changes in, produced by pol- 
 tophagy, 84-89 
 
 Disease, a deviation from opti- 
 mum health, n-12; allevi- 
 ation of, 14; varies with 
 environment, 15; the result 
 of avoidable causes, 16; not 
 malignant, but beneficent, 
 I7».; feeding in cases of, 
 70 ; a stimulus to the growth 
 of medical science, 126; re- 
 covery from, 135 ; methods 
 of treating, 136-146; appa- 
 
 ratus for the study and cure 
 of, 147-162 ; discoveries of 
 bacteriology relating to, 
 179-182 ; symptoms of, in 
 "retarded nutrition," 183- 
 185 ; due to absence of hu- 
 maniculture, 198; the fron- 
 tiers of, 206 
 
 " Disharmonies " of the human 
 body, 172-179 
 
 Dog, is psomophagic, 54-55 
 
 Eating, rules for, by Horace 
 Fletcher, 19 
 
 Economy, in cost of food, 45 ; 
 in quantity of food, see Food 
 
 Edison, 124 
 
 Egypt, ancient, medical prac- 
 tice in, 139, 143-144, 193 
 
 Empiricism, in medical prac- 
 tice, 1 39-141 
 
 Environment, as a factor in 
 disease variations, 14; in- 
 adaptation to, the cause of 
 disease, 16, 89-92 ; Fletcher- 
 ism a perfect adaptation to, 
 106,109, I1J > harmony with, 
 178 ; ignorance of, cause of 
 disease, 186, 188; changes in, 
 193 ; factors in, to which the 
 body reacts, 199-201 ; effects 
 of, 229 
 
 Epicureanism, as embodied in 
 Fletcherism, 109, 130-133 
 
 Epicurus, doctrines of, 109, 
 
 *$°-m< *3 6 > 2 45 
 Epiglottis, 52, 54; in the dog 
 
 and the horse, 54-55 
 Esculapius, 144 
 Eugenics, 120 
 
 Fats, as taken in the Yale tests, 
 41-42 ; appetite for, 79, 81 
 
INDEX 
 
 251 
 
 Fitz, Dr. G. W., 166 
 
 Fletcher, Horace, investigation 
 of optimum nitrogen supply, 
 8; inquiry into the root- 
 causes of his impaired health, 
 18; his perseverance in in- 
 vestigating human disabili- 
 ties, 19; his conclusions on 
 foods and feeding, 19 ; wide 
 scope of his teaching, 20; 
 importance of his theories to 
 medical science, 23 ; his suc- 
 cess due to his discovery of 
 human aptitudes, 25 ; the 
 story of his discovery and 
 experiments, 26-50 ; his fail- 
 ing health, 27; his recovery 
 through deliberation in eat- 
 ing, 28 ; his attempts to gain 
 a hearing, 30; experiments 
 in Cambridge, 32, 35 ; secures 
 the support of the greatest 
 authorities, 39; is tested at 
 Yale, 40-47; establishes a 
 new standard of nutrition, 
 48 ; scientific confirmation of 
 his discovery, 49 ; his discov- 
 ery of the food-filter in man, 
 51, 52, 68, 69 ; his claims for 
 taste and appetite, 69-77; 
 advises poltophagy as a rem- 
 edy for putrescence, 85 ; ob- 
 servations on mastication, 
 100, 103 ; the principles of 
 his teaching, 110-125 ; his 
 discovery of " Nature's Food- 
 Filter," in, 116, 202; atti- 
 tude of medical science 
 towards, 238 
 Fletcherism, multiple benefits 
 growing from, 20 ; history of, 
 25-50; the principles of, 
 110-125 ; involves humani- 
 
 culture, 115 ; epicurean in 
 tendency, 131 ; its peculiar 
 importance, 199, 202 
 
 Folin, Dr., investigates the 
 Fletcher standard of nutri- 
 tion, 48-49 
 
 Food, treatment of, in right nu- 
 trition, 34; an excess of, in- 
 jurious, 35; reduction in 
 amount of, 36, 40-46; quan- 
 tity of, prescribed in disease, 
 70; choice of, by taste and 
 appetite, 77-82; precautions 
 in the choice of, 94-95, 105- 
 109 
 
 Food-filter, in the mouth of 
 man, description of, 51-68, 
 69 ; discovery of, by Mr. 
 Fletcher, in 
 
 Foster, Sir Michael, invites Mr. 
 Fletcher to Cambridge, 30; 
 institutes the Cambridge ex- 
 periments, 32 ; report on 
 the nutrition inquiry, 33- 
 
 39 
 
 Fruit, juice of, 77 ; mainly use- 
 ful for its salts, 81-82 
 
 Fruitarians, 46 
 
 Galen, 134, 142-143 
 Gastric juice, flow of, 70-72 
 Gegenbaur, 26; on poltophagy 
 
 and psomophagy, 52 
 Gladstone, on the number of 
 
 mastications, 101-102 
 Governmental boards, studying 
 
 regeneration, 5 
 Greece, ancient, humaniculture 
 
 i n > 5, '3) "6-117, 128-134, 
 
 166, 192, 243, 245 
 Greek philosophy, optimism of, 
 
 2; practical character of, 
 
 129-133 
 
252 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Habits of the body, considera- 
 tion for, 89-93 
 
 Harvard Medical School, 39 
 
 Harvey, discovery of the circu- 
 lation of the blood, 134, 143 
 
 Harvey, Gedeon, 138 
 
 Health, see Optimum health 
 
 Heredity, theories of, 5, 223; 
 and optimum health, 10 
 
 Hencourt, Professor, 70, 197; 
 on " the frontiers of disease," 
 206 
 
 Hippocrates, 135, 144, 189, 236, 
 244 
 
 Holmes, Timothy, 155 
 
 Hopkins, Dr., 32 
 
 Horse, is poltophagic, 54-55 
 
 Hospitals, scope and defects of, 
 147-157 ; abolition of, pro- 
 posed, 220-222 
 
 Humaniculture, in ancient 
 Greece, 5, 13; scientific, 
 foundation for, 6; optimum 
 health essential to, 11; aims 
 and methods of, 12-13 I ' m_ 
 proved facilities for, 13 ; first 
 stage in development toward 
 the ideal, 20-22 ; faulty ori- 
 entation, 23 ; a part of Fletch- 
 erism, 115; production the 
 true method of, 117-125; 
 practice of, in ancient Greece, 
 128-134; effect of bacteriol- 
 ogy upon, 162 ; not a func- 
 tion of physiology, 165; 
 tendency toward, in medical 
 science, 191, 197 ; definition 
 of, and factors, 199-201 ; the 
 foundation of sociology, 216; 
 a department of, necessary in 
 the State, 217; its spread 
 the concern of every citizen, 
 230; duties of a government 
 
 department of, 231-233; the 
 foremost of the arts, 242 ; the 
 golden science of perfect 
 man, 246-247 
 
 Humboldt, 244 
 
 Hunger, distinct from appetite, 
 76 
 
 Huxley, conception of educa- 
 tion, 233 
 
 Hyper-mastication, 102 
 
 Hypertrophy of muscle, 53, 55 
 
 Insalivation, thorough, an 
 essential of right nutrition, 
 34; effect upon appetite, 36 ; 
 benefits of, 46; process of, 
 51, 63-68 
 
 International Congress at Tu- 
 rin, 3°< 33. 47 
 
 Intestine, large, changes in, 
 produced by poltophagy, 37, 
 88-89 J conditions in, 85-88 ; 
 a "disharmony," 176, 177 
 
 Jaffa, Professor, 46 
 
 Kellogg, Dr. and Mrs. J. H., 
 regeneration work, 4, 120 
 
 Laboratories, researches of, 
 in various branches of med- 
 ical science, 148, 157-167 
 
 Lecky, W. E. H., on influence 
 of pessimism, 2-3 
 
 Lister, 160 
 
 Lombroso, Professor, theories 
 of criminology, 5 
 
 Louis XIV., treatment of, 137 
 
 Lucretius, 137 
 
 Mahomet, 194 
 Majendie, 164 
 Marey's tambour, 56-59 
 
INDEX 
 
 253 
 
 Massachusetts General Hospi- 
 tal, 48 
 
 Mastication, thorough, as a fac- 
 tor in Mr. Fletcher's recov- 
 ery, 28 j an essential of right 
 nutrition, 34 ; benefits of, 46 ; 
 processes of, 51-68 j direc- 
 tions for the practice of, 98- 
 109 ; number of movements 
 in, 100-102 
 
 Maudsley, Dr., on the task of 
 medicine, 188-190; on its 
 limitations, 204-205 
 
 McCurdy, Dr., 166 
 
 McLean Hospital at Waverley, 
 48 
 
 Meals, times for, 75-76, 84 
 
 Meat, craving for, 80, 81 
 
 Medical science, and alleviation 
 of disease, 14; importance 
 to, of Fletcherism, 23; not 
 possessed of final knowl- 
 edge about nutrition, 38 ; its 
 imperfect knowledge and 
 methods, 111-118; origin and 
 progress of, 126-146 ; appara- 
 tus of, 147-167 ; modern doc- 
 trines of, 168-187 ; the future 
 task of, 188-190; changes in, 
 197 ; growth of, 203, 236 ; 
 practitioners of, 207-208, 237 ; 
 value of, to humanity, 238 
 
 Metabolism, tests at Yale, 40- 
 47; measurement of changes 
 of, 116; errors of, 159 
 
 Metchnikoff, Professor, 3, 85 ; 
 on human "disharmonies," 
 172-179 
 
 Moses, sanitary laws of, 144, 193 
 
 Mott, Dr., on nervous diseases ) 
 186-187 
 
 Mouth, see Mastication and 
 Insalivation 
 
 Muscles, atrophy and hyper- 
 trophy of, 53; actions of, 
 in mastication, 63-68; auto- 
 matic movements of, 65-66 
 
 Mylohyoid, 64 
 
 Navvy, British, 81 
 
 Nitrogen, optimum supply of, 
 8, 48; intake and output of, 
 in the Yale tests, 41-43 
 
 Nutarians, 46 
 
 Nutrition, experiments in, at 
 Cambridge, 30-39 ; experi- 
 ments in, at Yale, on Mr. 
 Fletcher, 40-47 ; Professor 
 Chittenden's investigation of, 
 49; physiological process of, 
 51-68 ; taste and appetite as 
 indications in, 69-72 ; the- 
 ories of, by Bouchard, 182- 
 185 
 
 " Nutrition retardante," Bou- 
 chard's theory of, 182-185 
 
 Optimistic school of thought, 
 1 ; concerned with research 
 and experiment, 4; in medi- 
 cal science, 170 
 
 Optimum health, definition of, 
 10; description of, in sacred 
 writing of the East, n; de- 
 viations from, 11-12; methods 
 of securing, 12-14; and re- 
 sistance against disease, 17; 
 effect of poltophagy upon, 
 84; measurement of devia- 
 tions from, 170, 229 ; attained 
 by physical exercise, 192 
 
 O'Reilly, Surgeon-General, 49 
 
 Palate, soft, 51, 52; of the 
 dog, 54; movements of, in 
 man, 56-68, 104 
 
254 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Paracelsus, 134 
 
 Pasteur, 160, 179-181, 239 
 
 Pathology, 150; laboratories of, 
 
 159 
 
 Patterson, Mr., 121 
 
 Pavlov, on the nervous impulses 
 in the mouth, 51 ; on appe- 
 tite as a stimulus, 70-72 
 
 Pessimistic school of thought, 
 1-3; guided by speculation, 
 4; in medical science, 170- 
 
 177 
 
 Pharynx, 67 
 
 Physiology, standard of nutri- 
 tion in, 31, 41-43; tardiness 
 of researches in, 71 ; not quali- 
 fied to decide practical human 
 questions, m-113; its im- 
 perfect knowledge and meth- 
 ods, 114-116; laboratories of, 
 163-167 
 
 Poltophagy, 52; as practised 
 by the horse, 55 ; as practised 
 by man, 62-68 ; appetite phe- 
 nomena in, 73-76, 81, 82 ; 
 changes produced by, 84-89 ; 
 precautions in the adoption 
 of, 92-96; directions for the 
 practice of, 98-109 
 
 Popular Science Monthly, ac- 
 
 \ count of the Yale experiments 
 in Fletcherism, 40-47 
 
 Production, "American meth- 
 od" of, 122-125, '9 1 ; tne 
 , realm of, 196 
 
 rroteid, amount of, in right 
 nutrition, 34, 35, 41-43 ; ap- 
 - petite for, 79-81 
 Psomophagy, 52 ; as practised 
 by the dog, 55; as practised 
 ) by man, 62, 67-68, 75, 76, 
 
 104 
 Ftyalin, 63 
 
 Regeneration, aim of, 12 ; 
 methods of, 14, 105-109 ; ap- 
 paratus for, 147; future ap- 
 plication of, 190 ; efforts at, 
 224-228 
 
 Respiration, experiments in, in 
 investigating the soft palate, 
 58-59; factors in, 200 
 
 Rest, perfection of, 103-107 
 
 Rome, medical practice in, 
 136-137, 139, 140 
 
 Ross, Major, 161 
 
 Sacculi, of the large intestine, 
 
 86-88 
 St. Martin, Alexis, the case of, 
 
 69 
 Saliva, action of, in mastication, 
 
 63, 66, 74 
 Salvation Army, 5, 194, 224 
 Seidlitz, 244 
 Seneca, 171 
 Seton, E. Thompson, on wild 
 
 animals, 9 
 Sheffield Scientific School of 
 
 Yale, 39 
 Sigmoid flexure, 88-89 
 Sloss, Dr., 80 
 Sociology, the positive basis of, 
 
 214-218 ; the work of humani- 
 
 culture for, 224-235 
 Solvay, M., his benefactions for 
 
 sociological work, 214-215 
 Spencer, Herbert, on tie ideal 
 
 of harmonious development, 
 
 21-22 
 Stahl, 138 
 Starch, appetite for, 78-79, 81 ; 
 
 effect of poltophagy upon, 
 
 103 
 Stomach, theory of contact 
 
 stimulus in, 70; appetite the 
 
 strongest stimulus, 70-72 
 
INDEX 
 
 255 
 
 Storey, Dr., 166 
 
 Sugars, 78-79 
 
 Suggestion, influence of, 93-94 
 
 Surgery, 150, 160 
 
 Swallowing, poltophagic and 
 
 psomophagic, 62-6S 
 Sydenham, 138 
 
 Taste, as an indicator in the 
 choice of food, 69; phenom- 
 ena of, as regards various 
 foods, 77-83 
 
 Theocratic medicine, ideals of, 
 143-146 
 
 Tongue, action of, in mastica- 
 tion, 63-67, 102-104 
 
 Toxaemia, 182-187 
 
 Toxicity of disease, 181 
 
 Treves, Sir Frederick, on the 
 proper conception of disease, 
 17 It. 
 
 Tyrolese peasants, 81 
 
 United States, especially 
 fitted for the work of hu- 
 maniculture, 234; its grand 
 opportunity, 235 
 
 Van Someren, Dr. Ernest, 
 collaborator with Mr. Fletcher 
 in nutrition inquiry, 30, 35; 
 reports on experiments, 33, 
 
 34. 47, 48 
 Vegetables, salts of, 77, 81-82 
 Voit standard of nutrition, 31, 
 41, 43, 48; proved to be 
 grossly incorrect, 114 
 
 Water, daily intake of, 82 
 Waste products, see Digestion- 
 ash 
 White, Arnold, on the " Waste 
 of Charity," 218-222 
 
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