Treatment

“ We wish for once that our province was not restricted to methods of treatment, in order that we might say something of the exquisite coloured plates in this fine volume; for the work is essentially one to aid in diagnosis rather than to detail means of cure. ”

“ I suppose, therefore, that dread of the pain of some unknown mode of treatment makes them conceal their real disease, and name some other, of which they know the cure to be unattended with bodily suffering or long restraint. ”

“ TREATMENT.—In a disease which affects so many of the races and such great numbers of mankind, which has been for centuries the object of special attention on the part of physicians, and of late years of government commissions and of eminent pathologists, it is evident that every remedy which the materia medica includes, as well as those of merely popular reputation in the widely-diverse geographical regions in which it prevails, must have been employed in its treatment. ”

“ A cure in a single treatment was the best method, for the patient readily relapsed unless he was made to feel that he had recovered his powers completely and that it would be his own fault if he permitted his symptoms to recur. ”

“ Recommending a cure, and not a curtain to cover the wound which festers all the more rapidly by the fact that it is heated by the covering, should be the line of treatment adopted by the good physician of the public body, as of the individual body. ”

“ All physicians have at all times used, though often unconsciously, the suggestive factor in therapeutics, and mental influence has had everywhere a large role in the treatment of disease. Only in recent years have we come to appreciate how many diseases are self-limited. ”

“ Thus these remedies are preventive as well as curative.
What we have thus far recommended for the treatment of this chronic affection is within the reach of every family. Patients laboring under this disease, when complicated with other affections, require special consideration and treatment, and all such are counseled to employ only those physicians whose experience and success entitle them to confidence. Health is one of the greatest of blessings, and how to restore it when lost, is a question of vital importance. ”

“ Exclusive attention to the physical condition and factors, or to the mental condition and factors, or concentration on one theory or one form of treatment to the exclusion of all others is sure to lead to neglect of that careful general inquiry into the whole personality of the patient, into the conditions out of which his disorder arose, and into all the manageable factors in the situation which is so essential to intelligent and effective treatment. ”

“ I take pleasure in recommending your institution to the afflicted, believing that you have the very best treatment for chronic diseases known, and I have had an opportunity to satisfy myself, from conversation with other invalids in your Institution, of the care and skillful treatment that you administer, and its excellent effects. ”

“ We are charged with the care and treatment of an ailing form of life. Because of our near likeness, in form and thought, it was hoped that we could understand and help them; in time, perhaps, find a cure. ”

“ In no class of diseases is greater care, scientific knowledge and skill more necessary than in the treatment of nervous affections. Almost every case is a law unto itself, and must receive careful consideration, pains-taking advice and specially prescribed treatment suited to the peculiarities of the individual. Hereditary influences, causes of the disease and constitutional peculiarities of the patient must all be taken into account. ”

“ The physician who faithfully followed their rules of treatment might kill or cure with impunity; but if he ventured to treat the patient according to his own notions, and if that patient died, he paid for the experiment with his life. ”

“ METHODS OF TREATMENT. The natural scenery of these places enters largely into the system of treatment as an active agent, and exerts a powerful influence upon the weak and suffering spirit. For instance, the soul that is irritable, peevish, dissatisfied with itself, requires a soothing, calm, and gentle influence. She is brought to one of the great garden sanitariums, and taken in charge by a family of tender, sympathetic beings, who delight to care for her. ”

“ To this end must be added the one thing needful, personal fitness, sagacity in recognizing the peculiarities of individual cases, and in adapting the treatment of them, hygienic, dietetic, and medicinal, to the special requirements of each. In a word, the physician must never forget that he has a patient as well as a disease to treat. ”

“ Another difficulty is often found to arise, from the almost exclusive occupation of the physician’s mind by the diseased condition of the sufferer, the relief of which is, of course, our primary and incumbent duty. In order to give to each symptom, as well as to the whole assemblage of symptoms, a close and discriminating attention, and to adapt, with equal care, a corresponding treatment in medicine, diet and general management ”

“ The success of mental methods of treatment depending, as it does, upon the mental condition of the patient and upon the mental impressions made upon him, it follows that if the mental impressions are not permanent, the cure may not be permanent. ”

“ Out of all the experience gathered by ourselves or others we may construct an ideal disease or plan of treatment, but the very next case of that disease we encounter may diverge more or less widely from our ideal conception of it, and we may find that the methods of treatment on which we have heretofore relied with confidence require material modification. ”

“ Whether disease or treatment held the greater terror, it would be hard to say. Modern medical science has devised many alleviations, and often restores a patient without spot or blemish. But to have lived at all in that day evidenced extraordinary vitality. ”

“ Interrogated by the physician on the nature of the disease, and the proper remedies to be applied for eradicating it, they give answers, or rather they become channels through which the spirit, satisfied with the offerings made in his honour, condescends to declare that he has now left the patient, and that by placing him under a certain treatment, which he fails not to indicate, he will soon recover his health. ”

“ Therefore thou shouldst also accept physical remedies inasmuch as these too have come from the mercy and favour of God, Who hath revealed and made manifest medical science so that His servants may profit from this kind of treatment also. Thou shouldst give equal attention to spiritual treatments, for they produce marvellous effects. ”

“ He is well aware that a method of treatment which is confined to the relief of mere symptoms will effect no more than a temporary improvement, and that as long as the cause of the symptoms remains in active operation, the morbid phenomena will continue to recur. Now these considerations apply with just as much force to the social organism as they do to the individual human organism. ”

“ A Group at the Battle Creek Sanitarium (Dr. Kellogg on the Right) .
[Pg 271]
“So the treatment of a patient consists, first of all, in the exact regulation of all his habits of life, and the establishment of wholesome conditions. The simple life and return to Nature are the ideals constantly held up before him. He must work out his own salvation; he must ‘cease to do evil and learn to do well’; he must cease to sow seeds of disease, and by every means in his power cultivate health.” ”

“ We shall devote the largest amount of space to a careful and thorough consideration of those chronic diseases, which, by a little study, may be readily recognized and understood by the masses, and for the cure of which we shall suggest such hygienic treatment and domestic remedies as may be safely employed by all who are in quest of relief. ”

“ Now we treat their sick and ailing bodies just as we would any other class of chronic patients, with rest, comfortable surroundings, good food, baths, and fresh air, correction of bad habits, gentleness, and kindness, leaving their minds and souls practically without treatment, excepting in so far as ordinary, decent humanity and consideration may be regarded as mental remedies,—and we cure from thirty to fifty per cent, and make all but five per cent comfortable, contented, comparatively happy. ”

“ Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure the patient as to his Unspoken pleading. exemption from disease and danger. Watch the result of this simple rule of Christian Science, and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, your patient is healed. The great fact that God wisely governs all, never punishing aught but sin, is your standpoint, whence to advance and destroy the human fear of sickness. Plead the case in Science and for Truth, mentally and silently. ”

“ Each particular form generally requires special treatment. In all, however, endeavours should be made to restore the general health of the body in the manner which existing circumstances may indicate. ”

“ How numerous too the practitioners who avoid the trouble of referring to the immediate or remote causes of the diseases which are observed by them, and who confine themselves simply to their treatment, without tracing them to their source. ”

“ But our object being to show how by a proper mode of life the body may be put into a state of health in which it is the least likely to need any help from drugs or special treatment, it would be clearly out of place, and imply a want of faith on our part in our present system if we thought it in the{131} least necessary to talk much about remedial treatments. ”

“ Modern medicine, on the other hand, declares that disease must be studied in the living person of the patient. And the same disease may require different treatment, if the condition of the patient is different. ”

“ Under the head of Adjuvants and Disturbing Factors in the psychic treatment of patients come the various phases of life which make for and against such a favorable state of mind as predisposes to the continuance of good health, minimizes inhibition, and adds to favorable suggestion. By modifying the modes of life, an ever renewed set of suggestions is initiated. ”

“ As our patients improve under the natural regimen and treatment, they gradually return to their first love and ascribe the good effects of natural treatment to a better understanding of "the Science." ”

“ The simple maxim or principle to be followed in the treatment of a disease is simply to forego the primary pathological causes of that disease. The special remedial measures that would pacify the different Doshas, Vâyu, etc. ”

“ Future medicine will be largely prophylactic, preventive, sanitary, hygienic, dietetic. What holds true of medicine in general holds true of that particular branch of it that deals with neurosis. The treatment will become largely prophylactic, preventive, educational, or pedagogic. ”

“ You may say what you will, but doctors who treat on English methods give instantaneous relief in all such cases of sickness, as if by the repetition of a mantra: a cure will be very difficult without proper medical treatment. ”

“ Such practices as these do nut constitute the Science whereby the Divine Mind heals the sick. If certain cases seem to improve under such treatment, they will relapse, and become more difficult to cure than they were at first. ”

“ If our patients were not continually and thoroughly instructed regarding the Laws of Crises and of Periodicity and if we did not strongly advise and encourage them to persevere with the treatment, few of them would hold out during these critical periods. ”

“ Christian Science ranges itself with the various theories of psycho-therapy that have been advanced from time to time, but its effect in the treatment of disease is of worth only as regards the suggestive power of mind over matter. ”

“ The logic by which the treatments current in folk-medicine acquire their efficacy is passing strange; at first acquaintance with this wonderland we are apt to imagine ourselves in some weird topsy-turvydom, where everything uncanny and incongruous is greedily collected, and the most bizarre and trivial doings become endowed with marvelous efficacy. Upon closer acquaintance we discover some little order in the medley, and, in spite of much that remains arbitrary and capricious, we begin to trace the analogies according to which the various treatments are composed and the potions concocted. ”

“ In the treatment of nervous cases, he is the best physician, who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope. ”

“ The more conservative and honest workers felt the bad effects of these extreme methods, and in the Journal of June, 1892, one healer writes:
All healers have some instantaneous cures, but if we mention only these, does it not imply that we have no lingering cases? I call to mind a lady Scientist who wanted to make an impression in a new field where she hoped to get business. After talking of the many wonderful cures which she had effected, she added that she herself was cured in three treatments of a lifelong malady. ”

“ There is at bottom only one genuinely scientific treatment for all diseases, and that is to stimulate the phagocytes. ”

“ Such negligence of the means of healing, by the remedies which are sent by the immediate hand of Providence, and rendered most abundant and common, and the substitution of others of a more doubtful, and often highly injurious, character, evinces a love of change, not simply to promote a greater benefit, but to render the art of healing more complicated and obscure. ”

“ The diseases I treat are those whose ravages are indeed fearful, but which are seldom understood, and still more seldom cured by ordinary medical practitioners. My system and my remedies are known only to myself, and, it is needless to state, have, for the last ten years, stood alone and unequalled, and are alike adapted to the wants of either sex. In accordance with my system of Positive Medicine, in every case I furnish just what Nature, the only great Physician, needs, in order to be enabled to effect a cure. ”