Vis medicatrix naturae

“ The body does possess a means and mechanism for modifying or neutralizing influences which it cannot directly overcome.” Oliver Wendell Holmes says: “Whatever other theories we hold we must recognize the ‘vis medicatrix naturae’ in some shape or other.” Bruce says: “A natural power of the prevention and repair of disorders and disease has as real and as active an existence within us, as have the ordinary functions of the organs themselves.” Hippocrates said: “Nature is the physician of diseases.” ”

“ How frequently will simple rest and recreation succeed when medicinal and other forms of therapy have wholly failed! And how largely, may we remark, does the Vis Medicatrix Naturæ work through the medium of things psychic, not physical, to achieve its beneficent ends! ”

“ All that pertains to the great field of medical learning is his by tradition, by inheritance, by right.”
It is claimed that the effect produced upon both the laity and the general profession of medicine by the introduction of homoeopathy was salutary in many ways. It diminished the quantity of medicine that was formerly considered necessary for the eradication of disease, and thus revealed the fact that the vis medicatrix naturae is often sufficient, with occasional and gentle assistance, to cure many diseases, especially those fevers that run a definite and regular course. ”

“ Here the struggle between the variation and the tendency to the maintenance of durable types is usually so sudden, violent, and quickly decisive, that it is vividly realized. Upon the tendency of deranged actions to revert into the old channels of health does the therapeutist ground all hopes of his ability to assist in the process. When that is manifestly impotent, no means he can bring to bear will arrest the speedy termination of life. Cullen attributed the tendency in disease to reversion or recovery—for they are identical—to a vis medicatrix naturæ. ”

“ The real secret is their knowledge of human nature. They induce people to tap new sources of vital energy in themselves, and somehow they succeed in bringing to their aid this law of reserve energy. Besides, in many cases the real reasons why patients continue to have certain symptoms once they have been initiated, is that their worry about themselves inhibits their natural curative power. This inhibition is prevented or obliterated by the change of mind produced by the quack, and then the vis medicatrix naturae brings about a cure. ”

“ Still less shall we follow him when, throwing himself into theories which remind us of those of Stahl, he insists that the organization of living bodies can be formed no otherwise than by the action of an intelligent but unconscious principle; that, in diseases, a regulating intelligence, a vis medicatrix naturæ, presides over the restoration of the functions to their normal state; that the reproduction of organs observed in some animals is caused by the unconscious idea of the usefulness of such organs, for the preservation of the individual ”

“ This general law, applicable to all organic beings, resembles in some respects that principle found in the human system called vis medicatrix. It was early discovered by physicians that in case any part or organ in the body became injured or diseased there was a surprising recuperative power in nature of healing or curing. All the sound parts of the body seem to conspire together to help the part or organ affected. ”

“ Besides their broad, accurate, vivid delineations of disease—portraits drawn to the life, and by a great master—and their wise, simple, rational rules for treatment, active and negative, general and specific—there are two great principles continually referred to as supreme in the art of medicine. The first is that nature cures diseases; that there is a recuperative and curative power, the vis medicatrix, in every living organism, implanted in it by the Almighty, and that it is by careful reverential scrutiny of this law of restoration that all our attempts at cure are to be guided ”

“ Every living animal body is furnished with organs designed to supply its waste and repair its injuries, and to maintain the whole system in a state of health. The ancients called this "The Vis Medicatrix Naturœ" and we consider it as a recuperative principle indispensable to animal life. ”

“ The formation of such an instinct seems indeed like an unforeseen contingency in the system of nature, a malady strengthened, if not- 94 - induced, by the very laws established for the preservation of health, and which the vis medicatrix of nature is incapable of eliminating. ”

“ It is this supreme power and intelligence, acting in and through every atom, molecule and cell in the human body, which is the true healer, the vis medicatrix nature, which always endeavors to repair, to heal and to restore the perfect type. All that the physician can do is to remove obstructions and to establish normal conditions within and around the patient, so that the healer within can do his work to the best advantage.
Here the Christian Scientist will say: "That is exactly what we claim. All is God, all is mind! There is no matter! Our attitude toward disease is based on these facts." ”

“ And it is said that nature may itself, frequently, if not generally, heal the ills of the body without recourse to medicine, and that it cannot be doubted that in numerous cases nature, when left to itself, does succeed in curing many bodily ills. ”

“ Probably most readers are aware that physiology is that science which treats of the various functions of life, such as digestion, respiration and the circulation of the blood, while therapeutics is that department of medicine which relates to the discovery and application of remedies for disease. Now I venture to assert that, during the last quarter of a century, infliction of intense torture upon unknown myriads of sentient, living creatures, has not resulted in the discovery of a single remedy of acknowledged and generally accepted value in the cure of disease. ”

“ In purely functional disease the vital organs are normally developed and physically perfect in structure, but, clogged and laden with the accumulation of the toxic products of food excess, their functions are impeded or totally arrested. Functional disease is a condition that admits of complete recovery, and, even in its acute forms, cure is a certainty where natural law is permitted its course. ”

“ This mode of treating disease (Hydropathy) is unquestionably far from inert, and most opposed to the cure of diseases, by the undisturbed processes of nature. It in fact perhaps affords the very best evidence we possess of the curative power of art, and is unquestionably when rationally [7] regulated a most effective mode of treatment in many diseases. Still it puts in a striking light, if not exactly the curative powers of nature, at least the possibility—nay, facility—with which all the ordinary instruments of medical cure, drugs, may be dispensed with. ”

“ Such physicians are more careful to supply the vital organism with whatever of air, light, temperature, food, water, exercise or rest, etc., it needs in its struggle for health, and to remove all vitiating influences all poisons, impurities, or disturbing influences of any kind. This is hygienic medication, the natural and rational method of cure, and the more closely it is examined, the more strongly it will commend itself to reason. ”

“ The outside pressure, therefore, is immense upon the physician, tending to force him to active treatment of some kind. Certain old superstitions, still lingering in the mind of the public, and not yet utterly expelled from that of the profession, are at the bottom of this, or contribute to it largely. One of the most ancient is, that disease is a malignant agency, or entity, to be driven out of the body by offensive substances, as the smoke of the fish's heart and liver drove the devil out of Tobit's bridal chamber, according to the Apochrypha. ”

“ Disease, which is quite as natural a process as health, is not allowed to go on as nature would; the internal organs whose morbid action alone can cause death, are made the arena for all sorts of conflicting and inflicting medical stimulants; and between the action which these excite, and that which originally existed, their vitality fails, their efforts towards restoration flag, and their functions are at last extinguished.”
Dr. Rush says:—
“We have multiplied diseases—we have done more, we have increased their mortality.” ”

“ The whole object of the homœopathic physician, who is true to the law, is to trace these symptoms to a common nerve-center, and then to select a remedy which, acting upon that nerve-center, will, on the line by which Nature cures, stimulate a reaction, and thus restore the equilibrium, which is perfect health.
The law of Nature's cure is, by rousing up reaction against disease, to restore the disturbed forces to their exact counterpoise, where action and reaction are equal. ”

“ Faber. Do you prescribe to me no drugs from your pharmacopoeia?"
"Drugs may palliate many sufferings incidental to organic disease, but drugs cannot reach organic disease itself."
"Do you believe that, even where disease is plainly organic, Nature herself has no alternative and reparative powers, by which the organ assailed may recover itself?" ”

“ If the art of keeping a community in health is but the application of plain physiological laws, it is no less true that the art of restoring the health, curative as distinct from preventive medicine, rests upon the same basis. In former days the physician was one who recognized what he called the disease of his patient, who referred to his books of precedents as a lawyer to his statutes, and who prescribed a proper remedy to cast out the disease. We now know that disease is, as the name implies, a purely subjective conception. ”

“ Medicines may change the character of disease, as long as a sufficient amount of vitality exists, to resist their unfriendly and corrosive intrusion upon the citadel of life. They may, often be made to patch the system, by allaying symptoms, obscuring thereby the exciting cause of disease. Even at the best, on an average, Physicians are less successful than ignorant Grannies, who use hot-bricks, hot foot-baths, and simple gruels, as remedial agents. ”

“ When speaking thus they do not however reflect that they are affording the strongest possible testimony in support of the system which they seek to decry, inasmuch as every physiologist, from Cape Clear to the Giant’s Causeway, admits the principle, that the cure of disease is to be sought for in the powers of the living organism alone; and it must be evident that the more you strengthen that organism, the more you increase its powers to cure itself, and diminish its liability to future disease. ”

“ The medicine (he says) sets up in the suffering part of the organism an artificial, but somewhat stronger disease, which on account of its great similarity and preponderating influence, takes the place of the original disease, and the organism from that time forth is influenced only by the artificial complaint; and as soon as the temporary effect of the medicine passes off, the patient is cured. ”

“ This being the case, the natural and common sense mode of curing disease, would obviously consist in assisting nature in its efforts to expel the morbid substance from the system, and thus relieve it from the danger which threatened it. Now, this is exactly the principle on which Hydropathy proceeds; it aids, encourages, and strengthens the efforts of nature to heal herself, instead of irritating, thwarting, and weakening those efforts, by the pernicious administration of drugs. ”

“ When we succeed in proving that all disease originates from a few simple causes, it will not seem so strange and improbable that all disease can be cured by a few simple, natural methods of living and of treatment. If Nature Cure can accomplish this, it establishes its right to be classed with the exact sciences. ”

“ But if overtaken by Excess, (it’s difficult to be always upon our Guard) the last Remedy is vomiting, or fasting it out, neither go to bed on a full Stomach; let Physick be always the last Remedy, that Nature may not trust to it; for though a sick Man leaves all for Nature to do, he hazards much; but when he leaves all for the Doctor to do, he hazards more: And since there is a Hazard both ways, I would sooner rely upon Nature; for this at least we may be sure of, that she is as honest as she can, and that she does not find the Account in prolonging the Disease. ”

“ They will know that acute and subacute conditions represent Nature's cleansing and healing efforts, and that local suppression by drug or knife only serves to turn Nature's corrective and purifying activities into chronic disease. ”

“ Certainly, according as you say, so I believe, that in the things of Nature are given other more excellent Medicaments, as also very many other Philosophers affirm, that there is a certain (although to few known) Universal Medicament, by the benefit which, we may prolong Life unto the appointed End, cure all Diseases otherwise uncurable, and many other such things. But, where is any among all the Wisest men of this world, that can shew us the way, how to find out so noble a Fountain, whence such a wonderful Medicamentous juice, nobilitating the Physician, is drawn? ”

“ Is nothing but injurious matter removed from the body by such means? Is not the patient made weaker? Does he not become emaciated by the premature removal of the sound parts of his body? If the patient were a fish, such a process might revive him; or if he were some amphibious animal, such treatment might be congenial to his nature. A state of health is when every organ, membrane and tissue of the body performs its own appropriate duty. Whatever tends to promote and maintain such an equilibrium, is conducive to health ”