The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-07-06
IT'S YOUR LIVER OR YOUR
MIND

trlckS is cnllQS play compared VIII
trying to break him of his old tricks
Canine nature is not unlike human
nature. People who have believed
for lifetime that when one feels out
of sorts or generally rotten it's his
liver or bowels that are torpid are
not likely to get it at all when
shout and tear my hair and dance
about in a fury trying to tell them
that is a ridiculous notion. They just
think I'm a queer nut. Especially
when their good doctors give them a
liver regulator or an intestinal dis
infectant or a bowel wash or cor
receive diet and pretty soon they're
feeling all right again.
Nevertheless and all the world and
his wife to the contrary notwith-
standing, tell you, you poor ninnie5
that the idea is absurd. 1t isn't YOU
liver or your bowel that is torpid E,
it's your mind. Must be your mind,
or else you'd snap out Of 1t some tim
and apprehend clearly that you ge-
over such occasional depression jus
as surely and just as promptly u
any case, no matter what remedy yen
use or whether you resort TO a rem
edy or not. You get over 1t because,
fortunately, the process Of nletabol-
ism in the body is automatically reg
ulated, and it is in no way depsndent
upon the function OF the liver or the
bowel.
Laxatives, purgatives, cathartics %
NOT remove any poisonous material
from the blood or the system. They
merely hurry the evacuation Of wa
ter, perhaps temporarily increase the
amount of water excreted, and also
the normal residue Of food and any
foreign material which may have
been ingested.
Here we come to a morbid subJect,
mucus. Mucus is the normal lunrl-
cant secreted by all healthy mucous
membranes. Irritation or inflamIn2-
ton of any such mucous membrane
induces the secretion of an increased
quantity of mucus. Noun, mucus;
adjective, mucous.
Bowel washes or colon irrigations
necessarily irritate, even if only wa
ter be used. The more frequently
Dull UltCl lldA UOtll 40 4I-
sorted to the more mucus is produced,
and many an unhappy hypochondriac
learns to regard the excess of mucus
as something harmful or evil in it
self, and so the internal bath" habit
becomes self-perpetuating. I fear a
few brass specialists within regular
medical ranks take advantage of the
mental weakness of their patrons and
build up profitable business irri-
eating the alimentary tract, though
the greatest offenders in this line Of
exploitation are fad healers.
So firmly fixed is the obseSsion that
our common ailments, if not the
graveSt ills, come from some vague
poisoning of the body by underlined
toxic substances in the alimentary
tract, that it is like bouncing a new
rubber ball on brick wall telling
the dumb layman this morbid idea
is without foundation in fact. And
with rare exceptions every layman is
pretty dumb about this. Why
shouldn't he be? Haven't all the
doctors, both regulars and quacks,
been exploiting him on this basis
from away back right up to the pres
ent moment? Has anybody without
obvious bias tried to teach the dumb
layman better hygiene or health
care? BY bias I mean the interest
Of the health teacher who has under
wear, beans or real estate to sell you.
Your health is my concern but it is
not my business; in any case your
health depends on nothing I can sell
you, but maybe I can teach you
something that will prove a boon to
your health.