The Portland daily press., 1892-03-08
THE HOT WATER CURE.
Here's a Letter About it by an
Enthusiast.
j. III. Connolly Tells How a New York
Doctor Experimental with Various
Sorts of Food and the Astonishing Re-

Doctor Experimental with Various
Sorts of Food and the Astonishing Re-
sults-Crcating Disease and Curing It.
Especial Correspondence
NEW York, March 3.-The curative
use of hot water was popular fad
seven or eight years ago, and doubtless
did then much more harm than good-a
result naturally to be expected from the
ignorant employment of any force or
remedy. People swelled themselves with
hot water, without any better reason for
so doing than somebody's guesswork as
surance that it might do them good;
without any conception that dietary re-
strictions might be necessary; without
even knowledge of when or in what
quantities the water should be taken.
Many doctors antagonized the treat
ment, some possibly because it is one in
which a medical adviser is by no means
essential, bat many more, doubtless be-
cause they were ignorant of the pro-
foundly scientific principles upon which
it is based.
The gigantic error of those claiming
w DC tllCI dpCutlDto lido OCC1 III oCstilli3
with established pathological conditions,
instead of the cause of which they were
but symptomatic. Happily, the more
intelligent of the profession now recog-
nize this fact, and the advocate of a
properly directed shot water treatment"
is no longer heard as ''the voice of one
crying in the wilderness" even among
D,,4. %bo I,oo1+1o
happiness and life of all human beings
to know that all our Diseases
those arising from injuries, parasites,
poisons and infections -spring from a
commonfcause, and that each one of us
has it in his power to Danish that cause,
or to cure the maladies produced by it,
if they have not reached an absolutely
hopeless stage. Sweeping as that affir-
nation may appear to be its correctness
is clearly demonstrable.
That veritable Pandora's box of a
cause Of disease is simply improper or
unhealthful alimentation; the feeding
upon foods that ferment instead of be-
ing digested in the stomach and bowels.
The scientist who primarily enunciated
and proved this discovery and originat-
ed the shot water treatment for the
successful elimination Of that cause is
DR.. James H. Salisbury, of New York.
In 1849, when he was principal of the
chemical laboratory of the New York
state geological survey, this doctor (who
was a graduate of the Albany Medical
college, commenced the study of germ
diseases, a field in which he ranks
among the chief microscopes of the
world. In 1854, after a long course of
chemical analysis and microscopic study
to demonstrators far as might be by
those means-the relations between ali
mentation and disease, he entered upon
the field of personal experiment, testing
upon himself the effects of exclusive
feeding upon variety of foods. and in
1856 got to hiring healthy, ablebodied
men to submit themselves to similar ex-
periments. The demonstrations uni
for1nly obtained during two years Of
those experiments were eminently salts
factory, and as far conclusive as it was
possible they could be while stopping, as
they necessarily did, short of the death
point. But, to put the results of his
work beyond question, he felt it requi-
site to carry them to the extreme, and
to this end used up nearly 1900 hogs,
tending, feeding, watching and dissect-
ing them.
In addition to years of patient, hard
and skillful scientific work the doctor
devoted to his unprecedented studies Of
alimentation, the cash cost of his expert
ments was over $4,000. It is character
istic Of the careful conservatism and
modesty of the man that though the
records of those experiments and the i'm
portant discovery deduced from them
had been completed and ready for the
printer by 1867, publication in its en-
tirety was delayed for several years,
and the results of his work were en-
ployed for the instruction of the medi-
cal profession and not for the trumpet
ing of his personal fame to the public.
Not until the cure of many hundreds OF
SO called favourable" cases in England
and this country had put beyond all
reasonable doubt both his discovery and
his method of treatment did he bring
out his big book on "Alimentation and
Disease"
That book is, Of course, better under
stood and appreciated by educated ply
sicians than by the general public, but
a condensation in plain language of
what it sets forth cannot but be of great
interest to everybody and of inestilnable
Importance to those suffering from dis
ease.
The keynote of it is. "Improper ali
mentation is the predisposing cause of
disease" Improper alimentation is the
feeding upon food which the digestive
organs cannot readily and perfectly di-
gest, notably-for our race-an excess of
starchy and saccharine materials, which
are highly fermentable. These develop
large quantities of carbonic gas, alco-
holic and acid yeasts, which poisonous
products and acid forming plants par
TALLY paralyze the mucous surfaces, by
which they are then taken up and car
ried into the blood. Fibrinous deposits
as thrombi in the heart and the large
vessels leading to it ensue, and when