The Laws Of Life

Lesson 79 - The Laws Of Life

Introduction

All life is subject to laws. Fixed material relationships provide the balance necessary to our survival and sustenance. They also dictate the conditions, primordial requisites and limitations within whereby we are able to flourish abundantly and live healthfully on our planet.

These laws follow an organized structure—a universal order—a perfect pattern beginning with space and time, energy and its activity—co-existing in constant, spontaneous, harmonious vibration and automatic progression as a continuum. The basic primary laws of vibration and bonding give energy its shape and substance in the form which we call matter. All matter is bonded energy. This matter/energy harmony, governed by perfect universal order, is the basis for all laws and constants of physics and chemistry such as the laws of mass and centrifugal force, which act in harmony to create the gravitational balance which is a constant of our existence on Earth. These fundamentals (our basic sciences) harmonize go give us the basic principles of biology, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology, the secondary sciences which determine our identity, composition, characteristics, and behavior as living organisms in symbiotic relationships to our internal and external environment and form which the laws of vital relation governing all plant and animal life, of which we are an integral part, are formulated.

This is the basis for our study of human life. Without these functional relationships, there could be no life as we know it. With them, life is possible. If allowed to follow nature’s perfect course of action, life immediately and automatically proceeds in the direction of perfect form. It originated and developed in strict obedience to the laws of nature. Life can be perfect if the laws of life are followed.

Life is a continuum. It is governed by immutable laws. These laws are unvarying. They must meet certain criteria to be termed laws of nature. These criteria are:

First, the principle, relationship or law must be fixed or constant—the same in all places and at all times, universally applicable under all conditions.

Second, it must be governed by universal order, harmonious with all other laws, reliable and predictable.

Third, it must be inherent in the nature of things as an integral factor, necessary to the completion of the sequence of natural process; that is, nature as we know it could not be sustained without it.

Fourth, it must be all-encompassing, excluding nothing. All aspects of nature must be governed by it.

Fifth, it must describe succinctly and accurately the normal sequence of developments and be the guiding principle in fundamental relationships.

All of these criteria are necessary to the formulation of a law of nature. All the laws of nature meet these criteria in every sense. They are as reliable as the motion of the universe. In the same way, we know where a planet in our solar system or our moon will be at any given moment based on laws of planetary motion in astronomy. With charts and records, we can be sure and feel safe and secure about the laws of anatomy and physiology governing human life and health. The laws never change; only environmental conditions change. The same law of gravity that allows a balloon to rise brings it back to Earth; the difference in conditions controls its altitude, but the law remains constant. Likewise, the same laws that cause a ship to float will, under changed conditions, allow it to sink. Again, the conditions change, but the laws remain constant.

In the same way, we can control our quality of health with the help of nature by changing our conditions— removing the causes of disease development and supplying the body intelligently with its needs—the elements of health.

It is impossible to break a law of nature. To say we have “broken” a law of nature is as if to say that the sun “rises” and “sets;” it is only a convenient idiomatic word form description of what has really taken place. If a child touches something hot and burns its finger, it has not violated a law of nature; rather, it has merely illustrated the results of its action. We can choose to ignore nature’s laws and suffer the consequences, or observe and follow nature’s laws and reap the benefits. When a pilot flies an airplane, he must observe strict rules of aeronautics and aviation which are dictated by natural laws of physics; and if he fails to abide by them, or to operate the plane within these limitations, he will crash.

So it is with our quality of health. If we overeat, or eat of an improper diet, ingest any poisonous substance or substances, or if in any way we fail to supply the body with its needs properly or subject it to inappropriate conditions, the degree of disharmony we subject it to determines the level of impairment of our health. The same sun that nourishes our body through the skin and plant life will enervate and damage us if we overexpose ourselves to it. Exercise is vital to oxidation and utilization of nutrients which are to be appropriated by the body; yet we can overexert ourselves and cause enervation which will impair our ability to assimilate and appropriate food. We must observe nature’s laws and live within their limitations or suffer.

Understanding nature’s laws and intelligently employing them in our everyday lives is the essence of Natural Hygiene/Life Science. The better we are acquainted with natural laws and how they affect us constantly, and the more harmoniously we observe and follow them, the higher level of health we enjoy, and the more effectively we resist adversity as it confronts us.

Natural Hygiene/Life Science is the study of the primordial requisites of life and the understanding and correct application of the laws of nature in order to most advantageously meet the needs of life and preserve it and its integrity in the most vital and abundant sense on all levels. What we do or don’t do now and from now on determines, and will continue to determine, our quality of life and our level of health.

The future of our health is in our own hands to the extent that circumstances of the past and health of our past generations have not had some peculiar overriding influence of influences upon our birth or the state of our present well-being, such as an inherent constitutional weakness passed on through our forebearers. Nature is wonderfully provident and compensating in most cases and protects us up to a point which varies from family to family and birth to birth, depending on complex conditions, again within nature’s limitations! The more consistently we live in harmony with the laws of life from generation to generation, as a body of like-minded people, the more we will improve the quality and upgrade the potentials of succeeding generations.

A consistent, concerted effort to live healthfully and harmoniously is urgently needed to reverse the gradually degenerating trend of our human race. Furthermore, we need to examine our role as an integral part of all plant and animal life and realize our necessity to preserve our symbiotic relationship with our natural environment. We must protect and preserve the ecology of our Earth upon which all life, including our lives and the lives of our children and succeeding generations, must depend if we are to survive as a human race and, ultimately if life as a whole is to survive.

How effectively and extensively we reach out and educate those around us to nature’s immutable laws and limitations they impose and alert our fellow beings to the changes necessary for reversing the present downward degenerative pattern will directly affect whether we are successful in saving the quality and integrity of our lives and our environment and in preserving our future.

There are those who would say it is already to late—that the time for turning around our ecological destiny has come and gone and that we will inevitably perish because of the constant onslaught of infractions and injustices we have assaulted upon our planet. This has been reflected in many of the thoughts and attitudes exhibited by some of our nation’s leaders and appointees overseeing the affairs of our country’s natural preserves and resources.

In my opinion, nature is supreme and omnipotent, and it is impossible to destroy nature. Nature’s supremacy is demonstrated constantly in our global weather and in the many natural “disasters” which take place in the form of earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tornadoes. It is further demonstrated in the power of the oceans and rivers, lakes, and streams, in our seasons, even in such instances as the single blade of grass that cracks a cement sidewalk, in the trickle of water that eventually may form a canyon, in the tree that continues to live and bear fruit even after it has been knocked over.

Man will never be able to overpower nature and her laws, no matter how many buildings he constructs which will eventually crumble, no matter how many roads he paves which eventually will be overgrown when left unattended or unmaintained, no matter how many bombs he builds and detonates, nuclear or otherwise, as nature systematically continues on regardless of scars. Of course, it is possible for man to exterminate himself and much of his surroundings for a time, perhaps a very long time after a nuclear accident or holocaust, and even though he may be able to destroy himself or make his environment unfit to support him, nature will eventually recover and repair that which he has destroyed, probably including man himself. Nature is omnipotent and all-encompassing, and nature’s laws prove and demonstrate it continually and endlessly.

Here are the laws of vital relationships, the fundamental and secondary principles of Natural Hygiene/Life Science, as formulated in accordance with universal law and comparative studies of biology, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology. These laws determine life as we know it; those laws of nature govern us and provide for us the capacity for natural defense. A disease-free existence with perfect health is possible if we let nature be our guide and live in harmony with her mandates.

All the laws of vital relation are built on two fundamental principles; the Law of Identity, as first set down by Aristotle in the third century B.C., and the Law of Self Preservation or Law of Homeostasis also known as Life’s Great Law. All other principles among the laws of vital relation are built upon these fundamental principles and are known as secondary principles, mostly being built upon Life’s Great Law, which in turn, may be said to be built upon the Law of Identity as a fundamental extension of that primary law.

Nature’s Laws For Healthful Living

Fundamental Principles

The Law of Identity

Every living thing that exists exists as a particular something, with specific qualities, attributes, potentials, and limitations inherent to the organism; a living organism is what it is and cannot act contrary to its nature.

What this basically means, without entering into a lengthy discussion of comparative biology, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology, is that all biological, biochemical, anatomical and physiological features of man definitely place him in the class of frugivores as a primate of the highest order, as indicated by the number, structure and dental formula of the teeth; the length and structure of the digestive system, the position of the eyes, the functions of the skin, the character of the nails, the salivary characteristics, the relative size of the liver, the number and position of the mammary glands, the position and structure of the reproductive organs, the character of the human placenta, the nature of having two hands and two feet, the method of physical transportation and many other factors, all indicating unquestionably our constitutional nature and biological heritage as a frugivore, whose natural diet consists primarily of fruit. By our very nature as a frugivore, we cannot function properly contrary to that nature. Frugivores may partake of some green leaves and other plant parts with advantages. Man may in accordance with his constitutional nature, add green vegetables and nuts to the fruit diet, thereby improving it according to most Hygienists.

There are other important factor elements necessary to human life which contribute to our well-being. They are essential to the functional integrity and systemic harmony of the human organism. They are: Pure air, pure water, cleanliness, rest and sleep, body temperature, exercise, sunshine, relaxation, mental and emotional poise, pleasant surroundings, creative freedom, self-discipline, and other important factors.

The Law of Self-Preservation(Homeostasis), which is also known as Life’s Great Law states:

Every living cell is endowed with an instinct of self-preservation, sustained by a vital force inherent in the organism, the success of whose work is directly proportional to the amount of inherent force available and inversely proportional to the degree of its activity.

What this means, in a “nutshell,” is that if you provide the proper conditions for living organisms, they will automatically proceed in the direction of perfect health. How Well they will do depends on how much vital energy is in reserve and how little of it is being expended in activity. Instinct is defined by natural law as “an innate propensity to act without conscious direction,” and every living organism endowed with certain instincts, drives, sensations, inherent desires, and indications which can also register as discomforts, which impel it to act in its own self-interest.

All secondary principles which are set down as laws of nature with respect to human life are basically elaborations, or secondary principles hinging upon this fundamental principle of self-preservation, serving to guide us in the fulfillment of these fundamental principles.

The Law Of Order

The living organism is completely self-constructing, self-serving, self-maintaining, self-directing, self-repairing, self-defending and self-healing. These are biological processes, extensions of the normal physiological mechanisms that renew and repair the organism on a daily basis, and are achieved by the organism’s own forces and processes in a lawful and orderly manner.

This law is basically self-explanatory and needs no further elaboration.

The Law Of Action

In the relations between the living organism and lifeless matter, the former is active and the latter passive, always; (R. Trall) therefore, whenever and wherever action occurs in the living organism as a result of extraneous influences, the action is ascribed to the living organism which alone is empowered with the ability to act, and not to any lifeless material, agent or influence whose leading characteristic is inertia.

This means that if you provide the wrong conditions for living things, such as pollutants or poisonous substances taken into the body from without, you will provoke defensive action and instinctive efforts of the organism to defend itself on the cellular, organic, and systemic levels as a unit. This principle goes hand-in-hand with our next law.

The Law Of Power

The power employed, and consequently expended, in any vital or medicinal action, is vital power, generated from within; it is the living organism that acts, it is vital power that produces the action, and no healing power whatsoever resides in any substances outside the body.

This law further clarifies the source of all activity within the living organism, that being vital power, which is distributed, utilized, and conserved in accordance with other laws which will be elaborated upon as we continue.

The Law Of Compensation

In order to expend vital energy on the one hand, nature must conserve and regenerate on the other.

This law means that there must be a balance maintained between energy expenditure and energy replacement. This balance is automatically observed by the body under ideal conditions. Therefore, it stands to reason that the more we drive the body, the less power it will have for overall efficiency, that is, for basic functional needs.

The Law Of Selective Elimination

All injurious substances which gain admittance by any means into the living organism are counteracted, neutralized, and expelled by such means and through such channels as will produce the least amount of harm to living structure.

Examples of this law are illustrated by the apparent actions of drugs which are introduced into the body and, depending on the composition of the drug, seem to affect certain parts of the body in a particular way. Actually, as we have discussed earlier, the body is acting on the drug according to its chemical character, using the point of least resistance for counteractive and eliminative measures, depending on what part or parts of the body can do so with the least ill effects.

The Law Of Vital Accommodation

The Law of Vital Accommodation is also known as nature’s balance wheel. The response of the vital organism to internal and external stimuli, agents and influences is intrinsic and instinctive, based on self-preserving, self-maintaining, and self-defending abilities which enable the organism to “adapt,” tolerate, or accommodate those extraneous influences it cannot utilize, escape, destroy, eliminate, or control in whatever way possible in order to maintain cellular, organic, and systemic integrity and to protect the life of the organism, at the expense of enervation, overall impairment of health, and consequent degeneration within the organism in direct proportion to the amount of influences and the toxic, enervating effects produced by the degenerating influences.

This law means that the living organism can tolerate or accommodate the extraneous influences which enter or come into contact with it. It “adapts” itself to whatever it cannot free itself of. The body tries in every way possible to maintain functional poise, having to sacrifice well-being. Functional vigor is lowered for the sake of survival. When we make compromises, we do so invariably at our own expense. We create conditions; the laws remain constant.

The Law Of Dual Effects

All substances and agents either taken into the living organism or coming into contact with it from without, occasion a twofold and contrary action in time, the reactive or secondary action being the opposite of the active or primary one, and the more lasting.

An example of this would be anything creating the effect of stimulation as a primary action, which would result in a secondary reaction of depression, such as taking a hot shower which gives one a sense of warmth and vigor and thereafter a feeling of “relaxation,” which in reality is a level of enervation. The same effect takes place very commonly in the “lazy” feeling created after consuming a very large meal, whereby at first one never feels very stimulated and “energized.” This is what we call a “stimulant delusion” and is very common in most current enervating lifestyles.

The Law Of Utilization

The normal elements and materials of life are all that the living organism is ever capable of constructively utilizing, whether it is well or sick, and there must always be a normal relation between the living organism, whether in a state of normal or abnormal activity, and the material things that contribute, more or less perfectly, to sustaining biological and physiological phenomena.

This law may seem a very simple one, but it is a very important law to fully understand. What this means is that no substance or process that is not a factor-element in physiology can be of any value in the living structure under any circumstances of life. That which is nonusable in a state of health must be equally nonusable in a state of ill health. There are two categories of substances that enter or occasion contact with the body: Those that afford nourishment, which is food, and those that have no normal relationship with the body. They may be chemically dangerous or relatively inert but afford no nourishment. These are categorically recognized as poisons. When we are in a condition of disease, only those substances and influences that are not foreign, but usable and necessary factor-elements in a state of health, should be supplied. Only they can be of any advantage to us.

Therefore, when sick or manifesting symptoms, the body is not able to appropriate substances that would contribute to ill-health if taken under normal conditions. Anything which offers no nutritive value or cannot be appropriated into living tissue in the context of a natural food substance suitable to our biological and physiological identity as a frugivore must be correctly recognized as a poison and should be avoided in all instances. A poison has no normal relationship with a healthy body. It is not usable in a state of health nor in a state of sickness. Disease is a biological process—a defensive action instigated by the body in an inherent effort to put right that which has developed into a difficult situation and has become threatening to the life of the organism. As such, it is a normal process of correcting that which has developed into abnormality. The body behaves essentially in the same way in a state of ill-health as it does in a state of health, dealing with adversity as it is confronted with it; therefore, the factors and elements of health are rightly employed for the same purposes in the care of a sick organism as in the care of a healthy one. Keep in mind that we are dealing with changes in conditions and how to intelligently allow the body to effect the proper changes necessary to recover its normal state of health. Only the conditions change; the laws remain constant.

The Law Of Special Economy

The vital organism, under favorable conditions, stores up all excess of vital factors to be employed in a time of special need.

This law is especially valuable to remember in the consideration of the subject of fasting. It is this law which shows us that when we fast, we can be sure that, under normal conditions, we have plenty of reserves which the body has automatically set aside for itself during crises. Exceptions to this usually involve metabolic imbalances of disease pathology which have created serious impairment or atrophy of a particular gland, organ or systemic faculty. The body is incredibly provident and intelligent in its self-preserving capabilities, and this law helps us to appreciate that even more. How wonderful it is that we can abstain from food for an extended period of time allowing our bodies to take over with its reserve fund and redirect its energies toward concentrating on ejecting uneliminated poisons and utilizing its innate healing capabilities with success and benefit as to transform our entire organism from a pathological condition to a vibrant state of disease-free health. It’s like a miracle, and yet it is simply nature and her providence once again demonstrating her superiority and self-preservation when given free reign.

The Law Of Conservation

This law is also known as the law of autolysis. Whenever nutritive abstinence is effected, the living organism’s reserves are utilized. They are conserved and economized. Living structures are autolyzed in the inverse order of their usefulness while toxic substances are being eliminated in the inverse order of their chronological accumulation.

This law is also known and understood as the fasting principle; and it goes hand-in-hand with the Law of Special Economy to further illustrate the process by which nutritional reserves are utilized and poisons eliminated during a fast. It is important to understand the fasting process as a kind of disease pathology operating in reverse, while fasting the body effects a remission of toxicosis with the least amount of damage to the living organism. At all times the body protects its systemic integrity most advantageously. It is even more important to understand that fasting does not suddenly cause the body to discharge all the toxic and morbid accumulations in one complete action or reaction. Rather, the toxic accumulations are discharged in proportion to the manner and rate at which they were accumulated.

The Law Of Vital Distribution

Vital energy is distributed throughout the living organism according to the particular needs of the cells, organs and systems of the organism, drawn from where it is in greatest reserve and directed to where it is most needed.

This law helps us to further understand the hierarchy that exists within all life forms which is further elucidated in the law of order. The body is systematic and ever aware of its needs. It knows how to fulfill them with the least amount of effort and energy. It always acts to preserve its own integrity, operating according to need and drawing from its most abundant energy reservoirs first.

The Law Of Quality Selection

When the quality of nutriment being received by the living organism is higher than that of the present living tissue, the organism will discard lower-grade cells to make room for appropriating the superior materials into new and healthy tissue.

The body always improves its quality and integrity whenever the opportunity presents itself. Whenever we improve our dietary quality, and, of course, our way of life, corresponding improvements are made by the body. This is our way of improving our overall health, by changing our own specific conditions, and laws like this one guarantee benefits.

The Law Of Peristaltic Action

Whenever peristalsis occurs, it is always accompanied by reciprocal contraction, with a wave of relaxation running right before the contraction to facilitate the peristalsis, and more or less continued relaxation while ingesting and digesting food.

For those who are not familiar with the term peristalsis, it is that function of digestion which facilitates the transportation of food substances and the accompanying bulk through the alimentary canal, the principal route of the digestive system. This law simply explains the mechanics of that transportive action.

The Law Of Limitation

Whenever and wherever the expenditure of, vital power has advanced so far that fatal exhaustion is imminent, a check is put upon any unnecessary expenditure of energy and the organism rebels against any further stimulation, even that which it has been accustomed to, to the point of complete suspension of functions, until prostration and coma may result, with complete loss of reflex reactions, as an instinctive measure in order to preserve the life of the organism.

This is a very important and necessary safety valve which all living organisms will resort to based on a self-preservative instinct which is, as we have said before, inherent in all living things. This is an important law for us to understand and a critical warning signal to all those who would seek to care for us whenever we lose consciousness and our bodies resort to prostration or coma especially as a last-ditch measure the body takes in order to save itself. Much too often people die while in a state of coma because those attending the person do not observe the coma as a critical warning signal to leave the body intelligently alone or, because the body has become so deranged in its functions either iatrogenically (drug or treatment induced) in the hospital or by whatever means, that prostration or coma does not occur until these measures become inadequate in protecting the life of the person. A broad understanding of the laws of life would help to prevent such disastrous consequences wherever crises of this nature occur, and many lives would be saved.

The Law Of The Minimum

The development of living organisms is regulated by the supply of that element or factor which is least abundantly provided or utilized. The element or factor in shortest supply determines the amount of development.

Basically this law is: the least plentiful element or factor of health being in reserve or being supplied to the body will limit how much development will take place. It does not matter how much of a certain element or factor we concentrate on providing ourselves with. All factors and elements are integral and dependent on one another wherever they are necessary to the development of a cellular, organic, or systemic capability. Whenever they must be utilized in conjunction with one another, for instance, if three elements are necessary in a particular natural balance in order to achieve a reparative or developmental goal, the element which is least plentiful becomes the limiting factor for that necessary balance and therefore ultimately determines the amount of development that will result. This is a major argument against the use of dietary supplements, among others which fate to provide us with nutriment in a satisfactory biological form and biochemically correct balance, and it is also a major argument toward the use of natural, whole, unprocessed and unaltered organic foodstuffs which provide us, in accordance with the balance of nature as a symbiotic unity, the correct elemental balance of nutritional essentials necessary for balanced development.

The Law Of Development

The development of all or any parts of the living organism is measured in direct proportion to the amount of vital forces and nutritive materials which are directed to it and brought to bear upon it.

Basically this means that the organs, systems and all body parts develop in proportion as they are constructively exercised. Development is achieved through constructive effort. There are three factors which determine vital capacity: size, flexibility, and force; these three elements are interrelated, and, when employed most intelligently, facilitate development most constructively. Therefore, physical development requiring the qualities of strength, endurance, skill, speed, grace or dexterity in their exercise, are limited by our vital capacity. More intensive employment of any of these qualities in our activities will produce greater development in that aspect of our being.

Moderate employment produces moderate results. No at all in time allows atrophy to take place. Energy and a particular physical quality exists only to the degree that it is used, and if not used, it will be lost only to be regained up trio a certain point whereby atrophy has not developed beyond an irreversible stage.

Irreversibility is always tragic, and yet it is inevitable where the body has been damaged or allowed to atrophy beyond the point of recovery. Fortunately, for most of us, this degree of irreversibility is preceded by many warning signs in the form of crises and dysfunctions all along the way. The tragedy lies in our ignorance of the laws of life and how many of us suffer from our ignorance of these laws, largely brought on by a commercially-oriented society that often deliberately mis-educates, or fails to properly educate us, mainly from its own lack of education or pernicious self-interest, in order to exploit and control us.

The more we learn how to take control of our own lives and take that control away from those who seek to control us out of their own fear and ignorance, the more we will be able to take responsibility intelligently for our own actions, improve our self-awareness as individuals and as a body of like-minded people, and change our degenerating conditions into a constructive force capable of controlling our own destinies within the guidelines set forth by nature and her laws. Somewhere there is written a quote which reads: “Don’t stand by and watch the future happen to you. Go out and shape it yourself.” We are the designers and builders of tomorrow’s world, and what we do today and everyday will determine what we will have to bring tomorrow. As Life Scientists we have the tools nature has provided for us to build a better tomorrow day by day. Another principle which is of worthy consideration states: “out with the old and in with the new,” and this begins within ourselves.

Questions & Answers

What is the role of vital force during health and disease?

Vital force is that power intrinsic within each of us that maintains a state of health. It is that same force that manifests itself under certain conditions to initiate

a healing crisis or “disease” to reestablish health when needed. Dr. Robert Walter says, “The work which this power does is sometimes called health and sometimes disease. Both disease and health are manifestations of vital power, which produce corresponding expenditures of it. Chemical affinity makes dynamite or explodes it according to the conditions supplied; gravitation floats a balloon or dashes it to the earth in response to conditions; so vital force makes health or disease just as we supply the conditions for health or disease.”

How can one increase his vital power?

You can increase your vital power by simply obeying all the laws of life and live according to your biological adaptations. When all of the conditions for health are fulfilled such as proper food, pure water, pure air, sunshine, rest and sleep, exercise, and emotional poise, vital force will be sufficiently abundant to maintain a healthy state.

How does the philosophy of the Hygienic system differ front that of the medical system in regard to caring for the sick individual?

Dr. Robert Walter (The Nutritive Cure) accurately compares these two systems. He says, “The true system may be defined in these words:

A system of restoring sick people to health by the same means that keep them well; a plan of curing invalids by building up that organism instead of breaking it down; a system that having cured an invalid has at the same time taught him how to remain well until his constitutional vigor declines into old age.”

Dr. Walter describes the medical system:

“Systems which attempt to make sick people well by the same means that make well people sick; plans of curing disease by breaking down the organism instead of building it up; systems that having cured a disease have usually rendered the patient a chronic invalid for life.”

Article #1: Vital Force by Dr. Robert Walter

A Summary of The Facts Established

1. The power that made us is the same as that which preserves, and, in case of injury, heals, repairs, cures, in order that it may preserve. This power is variously known as Nature, Vitality, or Vital Force. We have clearly disproved that disease is a malignant entity, bent on the destruction of the patient, even though no intelligent physician now believes it.
2. The rapidity and certainty of cure correspond to the amount of the power as well as upon the conditions for its operation.
3. Vital force or vitality is a constitutional endowment and not a product; it produced us but cannot be produced by us; it is a cause and not an effect. We expend it doing work, but no work ever manufactured it. It is inherent in the constitution of living things as gravitation and chemical affinity are inherent in matter, and can no more be manufactured than can these.
4. The work which this power does is sometimes called health and sometimes disease.Both disease and health are manifestations of the same vital power, which produces corresponding expenditures of it. Chemical affinity makes dynamite or explodes it according to the conditions supplied; gravitation floats the balloon or dashes it to the earth in answer to conditions; so vital force makes health or disease just as we supply the conditions for health or disease.
5. Both health and disease are processes of expenditure on the one hand, or of recuperation on the other, according to the degree of activity of the working organs. Increased activity always means increased expenditure, which may continue to feebleness, exhaustion, and death, as under excitement, stimulation, and active work, while reduced activity, as during rest and sleep, or in the crisis and feebleness of the disease (fever), means recuperation of power preparatory to restored function, increased vigor, and abounding health. The secondary effect is the opposite of the primary.
6. Recuperation is the process of recovery, the means by which vitality, vigor, and a real increase of power is secured, while development means increased capacity to do work, expend power, and exhaust the vital resources at the very time and by the very means that it appears to give power. Recuperation means closing the valves, preventing escape of the steam and increasing the pressure in the boiler, so getting ready for future vigorous work, while development is the process of enlarging the engine, increasing the expenditure, opening more widely the valves, and so, by increasing the amount of work done, reducing the capacity for further work. When the motive power in a railway train is insufficient to its needs, there are two ways of hurrying the train to its destination—one is to close the valves and wait until sufficient pressure has been built up to work the engine vigorously. The vital organism may be rigorously worked, as by tonics, stimulants, or other violent processes and so become exhausted, or it may be recuperated by soothing, quieting, restful appliances, such as sleep and other relaxing means, by which power is accumulated and vigorous health secured. The locomotive differs from the vital organism in one important respect, however, which must not be overlooked. The power of the one being producible, production may be hurried, while in the other, no means has ever been discovered of increasing its powers except by recuperation through their non-use—that is, through rest and sleep, which involve patient waiting.
7. Rest and sleep produce inaction and weakness in the present in order that activity and vigor may be secured in the reaction; while stimulants, tonics, high feeding, exciting baths, etc., produce activity, excitement, and apparent strength in the present only to be followed by increasing weakness and final exhaustion and death. Under such treatment patients are always getting well, but they never get well. The increased power which the patient exhibits is his own vital power which is being called forth and expended with a rapidity corresponding to the vigor of its manifestations. Power manifested is power expended; the strength it seems to be giving is the strength it is taking away. As Newton’s law proved that the sun does not revolve around the earth, but the contrary, so Life’s Great Law proves that the real effects of all treatments, whether medical or sanatory, whether drugs or baths, even including food in most cases, are the exact opposite of the apparent effects. By sleep and its corollaries we recuperate power through present weakness, and by stimulants and tonics we exhaust power through increased activity and apparent vigor. Life’s Great Law is not simply the analogue but counterpart of Newton’s law of gravitation, and answers to vital existence and phenomena just as Newton’s law answers to mechanical and astronomical phenomena.
8. Increased development of body and brain does not necessarily mean increased power possessed by the individual, but rather increased capacity to expend the power. The gymnasts increase their capacities for work but do not, therefore, prolong life; they are generally short lived, the result being due not to licentious habits, for they are generally models of propriety, but to the very exercises which they vainly imagine are promoting health and prolonging life.
9. The supposed or imagined discovery of an elixir vitae is one of the most dangerous discoveries any man can make, for it places his life in jeopardy. A good friend in the prime of life believed that electricity is life, and that with it he could cure any disease and .prolong life indefinitely. He died from exhaustion within two years. Not long since in the great city a vigorous man in the flush of young manhood had discovered what seemed to him a near approach to the “fountain of perpetual youth,” and after being before the public for a short time, as a prodigy of physical development, he was carried to an insane asylum and soon died. The man who teaches that “weakness is a crime” is dancing the jig of death on Mt. Pelee. Weakness in man or woman may be the result of bad habits, but is often the God-ordained method of recuperating power for future strength, sleep and rest being the illustrations. Let every man see to it that he first possesses what he would develop, thus making development as easy as it is for water to run down hill; but let him not imagine that he can produce by development any power which does not previously exist in a passive state. Development calls power from the passive into the active condition so expends it; we may develop and use our inheritance but we cannot product it. Development, whether physical or mental, which can be sustained by adequate vital resources, is to be commended, but a physical monstrosity is no more health-promoting than is a cyclopediac mentality.

Reprinted from Life’s Great Law

Article #2: The Laws of Life by Dr. Herbert M. Shelton

We are in the habit of saying the Universe is governed by law and while we shall use this convenient expression throughout this work, we desire it understood that we do not use the work law in any legislative or coercive senses, the laws of nature are not legislative enactments. Natural events do not take place in obedience to natural laws. Natural laws, as we call them, govern nothing. They are “uniformities” of nature which are classified in universal formulas describing all possible happenings of nature. Thus the law of gravitation does not govern the motion of falling bodies and the coursing of planets, meteors and suns. The law, so-called, is a descriptive formula which states in the tersest way possible the mode of action which things of a definite quality will take under certain conditions. Natural laws are formulas which describe uniformities or regularities of nature. A law is a “constant mode of action of a force;” that is, it describes how the force works.

The life forces in their operations work, as do all other forces, according to well defined laws or uniformities. Laws have no validity except as expressions of the forces back of them. The uniformities of nature are not mere haphazard coincidences but intrinsically necessary conditions. They are based on the nature of things and constitute an intrinsic and necessary part of the world order, or, rather, of the universal order. The uniformities of nature are eternal. They are uncreated and uncreatable.

Natural laws are inherent in creation. Man is constituted upon and in perfect harmony with these laws. There is an inseparable and orderly relationship between the laws of nature and the highest welfare of man.

No one who is accustomed to observing the exact order and harmony that prevail in the world about him will question that his own body is constituted upon precise and fixed principles and that the vital machinery is controlled by express law. Physicians of all schools profess to believe in the existence of a law which governs the vital organism, and most of these profess to believe that in a perfect state of the body, this law is fully adequate to the government of all the vital forces and their actions. But in a disordered or impaired state of the body, physicians of all schools hold that the economy of life is incompetent alone, to exercise the entire supervision and direction of all the internal affairs of the organism. It needs and must have counsel and aid from the human mind; backed by agents and forces other than those inherent in the organism.

The law of animal life is an inherent principle or tendency in the animal organs, by means of which they perform certain specific functions or acts, and this law, principle or tendency is immutable, always in force, and always acting in one direction with as much positiveness and unerring certainty as that water will run down hill, or heavy bodies tend towards the center of the earth.

The general law of the vital economy is a unit. In all its operations, whether in perfect or impaired health, its tendency is one and indivisible: the highest and best interest of the whole organism. Nor can this unity be broken so long as life continues.

For the purpose of showing, more clearly, the nature and tendency of the law of life, and its adaptation to the purposes of life and health, it will be necessary to examine it under a number of separate divisions. These divisions reflect a grand system of order that is ultimately based on the same principles and which give rise to a grand harmony which can but excite the wonder and admiration of every man or woman who studies it.

• Biotic: Relating to or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations.

Biotic force strives always to preserve and maintain the organism in as near perfect condition as possible. The reaction of the living thing to any adverse condition or circumstance is always calculated to defend and preserve its integrity. In fact, so strong and universal is this effort at self-preservation, it has been called the first law of nature. The instinct of self-preservation is inherent (1) in the smallest microscopic unit of organic existence, (2) in cells associated as a community, (3) in cells organized into distinct organs, and (4) as organized into organisms. Every particle of living matter is under the control of the vital forces and is endowed with the instinct of self-preservation.

Self-preservation is the primary or controlling expression of life and, normally, is subordinate to no other law except, at times, to the instinct of race preservation, in which case the individual often sacrifices himself for the protection of the young or the flock. Primarily, life seeks to preserve itself and to maintain vital integrity. All the functions of life have reference to this effort at self-preservation either of the individual or the race. Nature aims at wholeness. This is as much true of the single cell as of the complex organism.

The primary controlling law of all life was formulated by Dr. Robert Walter and denominated: Life’s Great Law: “Every particle of living matter in the organized body is endowed with an instinct of self-preservation, sustained by a force inherent in the organism, usually called vital force or life, the success of whose work is directly proportioned to the amount of the force and inversely to the degree of its activity.

If vital power could be manufactured by food, air, water and exercise if it is the product of activity, then increased activity would be the best means of increasing the power and the inactivity of sleep would be a waste of time. “Certainly,” says Dr. Walter, “inversely as the degree of activity” is frought with immense consequences to human health and life. It makes all the difference whether we are increasing or reducing vital power by increasing vital activity. That we are doing the one or the other no one can doubt. There can be no neutral ground in medical practice. Vital activity expends power or increases it; if the latter, rest and sleep are a waste of time and opportunity; if the former, the medical practice of our day is engaged in exhausting vital power, especially through the nervous systems, and should produce nervous diseases in great degree.”

As will be shown later, activity expends and exhausts, while passivity recuperates and preserves. As the vital energies are the important things in the preservation of life and recovery of health, it follows that the success of the organism in doing either must be calculated “directly as the amount of the power and inversely as the degree of its activity.”. The inactivity of sleep, not the excitement of “stimulation,” nor the strength of work, is the great representative process of recuperation and health.

Increased vital activity goes with reduced rather than with increased power. Quickened respiration, increased heart action, and abnormally frequent pulse, sensitive nerves, an extremely active and excited brain, restlessness of the general system, all indicate weakness rather than strength.

It follows, therefore, that all care of the chronically ill, no less than with the acutely sick, must operate as sleep does—it must reduce activity and increase power, instead of increasing activity and reducing power. “It is the inactivity of sleep that recuperates power,” says Dr. Walter, “ and the activity of labor that exhausts it.”

In the organic as in the inorganic realm, there exist, also secondary laws or “the observed order” of facts, which grow out of the primary law which produces them. Dal-

ton’s laws of chemistry and Kepler’s laws of the heavenly bodies form secondary laws to the primary laws of chemical affinity and gravitation respectively. So in life we have certain laws secondary to “life’s Great Law” called the Laws of Vital Relation. First among these we have: The Law of Action: “Whenever action occurs in the living organism, as the result of extraneous influences, the action must be ascribed to the living thing, which has the power of action and not to the dead, whose leading characteristic is inertia.”

There is a vast difference between living and dead protoplasm. Chemically, they may be the same, physically they may present identical appearances, but they answer to different tests. The living protoplasm or the living organism possesses, the power of action; dead protoplasm, in common with all other lifeless matter, does not. Lifeless matter may be moved, but it cannot move itself. Living matter can move itself and other matter as well. The action of living matter under various conditions and when subjected to various stimuli does not represent the action of these conditions or stimuli upon the living organism, but, rather, the response of the living thing to the conditions or stimuli. The response is from within, the power to respond is inherent. When the power of response is lacking, as in dead protoplasm, there is no response to changed conditions or to the application of various stimuli. In the relations between lifeless and living matter, the living matter is active, the lifeless matter passive. If the power is low, the response is correspondingly low. The work of “vital force” is “directly proportioned to the amount of the force.”

We may illustrate the above law by the common practice of taking purgative or laxative drugs to force bowel action. The expression is common that certain drugs “act on the bowels,” or on the liver, or on the kidneys, or act on some other organ. Apparently this is the case, but actually the reverse of this is true. The taking of a dose of epsom salts is soon followed by a movement of the bowels. Dr. Trall’s question, “which acted and which was acted upon?” is a very pertinent one. The only action of which any drug is capable is chemical action and no one will maintain that the bowel action in this case is chemical. No one will dispute that it is bowel action. From first to last the living organism is the actor, the salts are acted upon.

Why do the bowels act; why the hurry following the ingestion of the salts? The answer is: self-preservation. The chemical union of salts or any other drug with any of the fluids and tissues of the body is destructive to them, impairing their structure and function and even resulting in death. They act as irritants and are irritating in direct proportion to their destructiveness. The bowels act to cast them off, to eliminate them. They but perform their God-ordained function of elimination in order to self-preserve, in hurrying the dose of salts from the body.

This bowel action is vital action, as much vital action as the beating of the heart or the act of hearing, and the power of the action is inherent in the bowels, not in the salts or other drug. Vital actions are accomplished by vital powers.

Medical men speak of drugs which act on the bowels (produce diarrhea), drugs which act on the kidneys (occasion urination), etc. Reasoning, as they always do from the wrong end of the matter they attribute the power of action and of selective action to the lifeless drug, instead of to the living body. Trail combatted this fallacy as follows, and incidentally demonstrated the essential nature of “disease”:

“A knowledge of the law of vitality would teach medical men that only living structures have inherent powers to act; that all dead things, in relation to living, are entirely passive; and that the only property they possess is inertia, which is the tendency to remain quiescent until disturbed by something else—the power to do nothing.

“The living system acts on food to appropriate it to the formation and replenishment of its organs and tissues. This is digestion and assimilation—the nutritive process. And the living system acts on drugs, medicines, poisons, impurities, effete matters, miasms, contagions, infections —on everything not useful or usable in the organic domain—to resist them; to expel them; to get rid of them; purify itself pf their presence through the channel or outlet best adapted to the purpose under the circumstances.”

Law of Power: “The power employed, and consequently expended, in any vital or medicinal action is vital power, that is, power from within and not from without.”

It is the living thing that acts, it is vital power that produces the action. A dose of salts or calomel will produce no movement in the bowels of a dead man. The body of a man who is nearly dead will not respond to medicines. Why? Because the power of response is absent. It is living power, not drug power that is back of the action. Vital force is the cause of the action, the threatened danger to the organism, due to the presence of the drug, is but the occasion for the action.

Dr. Trall well illustrated this law as follows: “It is urged that, as escharotics or caustics applied to the skin occasion rapid decomposition of the structures, the drugs must, in these cases, act on the system; for, it is asked, would the living system destroy itself? Is that remedial action which results in death? I answer: Remedial action is not necessarily successful in always accomplishing its purposes. It is defensive action. It aims to rid itself of the enemy; to remove the abnormal and offending material. It may wear itself out in the struggle. It may die in the attempt. It must oppose and war upon whatever is injurious, whatever is incompatible with its functions, so long as they are present, otherwise it could not be vital. And this is precisely the distinction between living and dead matter; the dead is passive and quiescent everywhere; the living will not tolerate the presence of the dead.

“That caustic does not act on the skin more than ipecac acts on the stomach, or castor oil on the bowels, is demonstrated in this way. Apply a blistering plaster to the skin of a healthy, vigorous young person. It “draws” readily and the skin is soon vesicated. Apply it then to a feeble, pale, anemic, or dropsical invalid. It ‘draws’ with difficulty or not at all. Before it will vesicate, the skin must be rubbed with some pungent, or irritant, as hot vinegar or red pepper. Then apply the blister to the skin of a dead person. It will produce no effect whatever. What is the explanation of these facts?

“If the blister acted on the skin, the effect would be greater instead of less in the cases of feeble persons, for the reason that there is less vital resistance. But the contrary happens to be the fact. The effect of the blister is precisely according to the vigor, integrity, and resisting power of the living and action machinery; and this I regard as proof positive that it is the living system, and not the dead drug, which acts. And the principle herein indicated explains how it is, and why it is that healthy vigorous persons, when equally exposed to the causes of disease, have more acute and violent maladies. Disease being remedial action, and their vital machinery being in vigorous condition, the defensive action, the disturbance, the disease, will manifest proportionally more violent symptoms.”(The Hygienic System.)

Dr. Walter used Herschel’s rules for determining the real cause of an effect, to show that this explanation is correct.

These rules are:

• First—Invariable connection between cause and effect.
• Second—Invariable absence of effect with absence of cause.
• Third—Increased or diminished intensity of effect with increased or diminished intensity of cause.

Now let us apply these rules to our law and see how it works. Our law says that vital force is the cause of the action, while the living organism is the actor. Already, we have used a dose of salts to illustrate the Law of Action, and we shall use it to illustrate the present. No amount of salts can “move” the bowels of a dead man. The giving of salts to the dead produces no effect. Yet, if salts were the cause of the movement, we should get a movement. Bowels do not move, whatever the occasion or condition, where life is lacking. Dead bowels cannot be made to act. The more vigorous a person is, the more vitality he possesses, the more vigorous will be the response to the salts, on the part of the bowels, while if the person is very low, the response may be hardly perceptible. In the relations between living and lifeless matter, the living matter is active, the dead matter is passive. The action of living matter is in proportion to the need for action and to the amount of power of action that is present.

If salts act on the bowels, to move them, they should always do so regardless of the condition of the bowels. But if the bowels act on the salts, to expel them, it is obvious that there will be no bowel action following the ingestion of a dose, if the power of movement is lacking. Where the power of movement is present, the movement must be in proportion to the power possessed and to the need for action. The salts cannot give power to the bowels for they possess no power to give. But they do occasion the expenditure of the power already possessed by the bowels. The same thing is true of other substances and agencies which apparently strengthen us. They occasion the expenditure of the power already possessed but do not add power.

Power is felt only in its expenditure, never when it is passive. One therefore, feels stronger while he is growing weaker, and feels weaker when he is actually growing stronger, through recuperation of power. The man who has had a drink of alcohol is led to believe that he is strengthened by it, while, in reality, the alcohol has only occasioned the expenditure of the power he possesses. In this way strychnine may “strengthen” the heart until it exhausts this wonderful organ. A cold plunge or a short hot bath produces a general feeling of strength and well-being by occasioning the expenditure of power which they do not and cannot give.

The thing which seems to give strength is the thing which is taking it away, the thing which appears to be curing the patient is the thing that is hastening his death, the very agents which seem to be “supporting” and “sustaining” life are the very things that are undermining the foundations of life.

Following the period of apparent increase in vigor (stimulation) there comes a period during which there is a feeling of lessened vigor (depression). There are two effects following the use of every force or agent.

The Law of Selective Elimination: “All injurious substances which, by any means, gain admittance within the domain of vitality, are counteracted, neutralized and eliminated in such a manner and through such channels as will produce the least amount of wear and tear to the organism.”

This law accounts for the fact that some drugs apparently “act” on the bowels, some on the liver, some on the kidneys, etc. These are the organs which are “selected” to act on the drug. Discussing this very principle, Dr. Trall says, True Healing Art:

“And herein is the explanation of the classes of medicine, the rationale of the action of medicines, which has so puzzled the brains of medical philosophers of all ages.

“Emetics do not act on the stomach, but are ejected by the stomach. Purgatives do not act on the bowels, but are expelled through the bowels. Diaphoretics, instead of acting on the skin, are sent off in that direction. Diuretics do not act on the kidneys, but the poisonous drugs are got rid of through that emunctory, etc.”

The Law of Dual Effect: “the secondary effect upon the living organism of any act, habit, indulgence, or agent is the exact opposite and equal of the primary effect.”

This law admits of no exceptions, but applies to all departments and actions of life. Work or exercise arouses vital activity, thus giving an appearance of increased vigor as the first effect. The secondary effect is tiredness, decreased vigor, fatigue, and exhaustion. Rest and sleep on the contrary, produce as their first effect, weakness and languor, but no one doubts their recuperative value. Rest and sleep are the only means whereby recuperation and restoration may be secured. But these are their secondary and lasting effects.

Invalids are frequently advised to keep up; because, if they go to bed they will lose strength. The apparent loss of strength is the first and temporary effect. The second and lasting result is a gain in vigor. Travel and excitement make the invalid feel stronger and better as a primary effect; but their secondary effect is languor, weakness, exhaustion. The invalid must be weak that he may grow strong.

Sexual excitement and sexual indulgence arouse vital activity and increase strength. There is increased blood pressure, rapid heart action, accelerated breathing, greater nervous activity, a general increase in muscular activity and a great increase in the feeling of well-being. But as a secondary effect, languor, sleepiness, and weakness follow.

A cold plunge or a short hot bath act as stimulants. There is an increased feeling of well-being, an increase of physiological function. It is always and necessarily followed by an equal amount of mental and physiological depression. Prolonged cold baths act much the same as chloroform or ether. The temporary exhilaration of function is soon followed by a decrease in function. Heart action is reduced, circulation and respiration slowed down and nervous activity decreased. Muscular activity is decreased even to the point of stopping such activity. Prolonged application of cold to the chief trunk of a nerve will greatly diminish or entirely abolish its activity. The feeling of warmth that comes with the reaction from the first shock of the cold gives way to a feeling of chilliness and cold. The apparent increase of strength gives way to a feeling of weakness and lassitude, and if the cold is continued, numbness and abolition of function follow. Anesthesia may be produced by prolonged cold. It is a vital depressant and the feeling of increased strength with the increase of activity which comes primarily upon its application is one of vital resistance. The organism resists the cold as truly as it does alcohol or ether. Cold does not supply functional power but it does occasion its expenditure.

The Law of Special Economy: “The vital organism under favorable conditions, stores up all excess of vital funds, above the current expenditure, as a reserve fund to be employed in a time of special need.”

Power in reserve is the surest guarantee against “disease.” The body seeks always to maintain a certain reserve of power and we can get this power out only by supplying emergencies such as this reserve is stored up to meet. Thus irritants, miscalled stimulants, produce an emergency that call out the body’s reserve power in an effort to overcome these. If no stimulants are employed, the body will always have on hand a reserve of power to meet other emergencies of life.

Life is rhythmic in its varied operations. Rhythm, or periodicity, is regularity or differentiation in time and regularity of structure or segmentation. Alternate activity and repose is the most obvious example of this nature. All motion, all action, is intermittent. All movements in nature are intermittent and not continuous. All advance is an advance and a recession and another advance and another recession, the advances preponderating over the recessions.

During rest and sleep, the body stores up power. During favorable weather, it stores up power. During unfavorable weather, power is expended in defending the body against the excessive cold or heat, etc. During activity, power is expended in doing work; during repose, power is recuperated for future use.

The rising of the tide is an intermittent series of rises and falls, the rises preponderating over the falls. Similarly there is an ebb and flow, an alternate rise and fall, in the ebbing of the tide, but with more fall than rise. Just so, growth is not continuous, but intermittent. Indeed, there is also recession in growth. The child actually loses a little weight after gaining it.

The growth and development of the body takes place by “spurts.” Periods of rapid growth alternate with periods of slow growth. The body seems to take a rest and accumulate power for the period of rapid growth. In periods of rapid growth there are new developments to be made, or incomplete ones to be finished and these things cannot be accomplished without an outlay of energy above the ordinary expenditure. In preparation for such work there always precedes a period of comparative rest, as just prior to the onset of and in preparation for puberty at which time the forces of development go forward with a rush.

Some who have been ailing through more or less of the period of childhood are “carried by the force of development, which in a cyclonic fashion sweeps everything before it into health—and that, too, often in spite of wrong life, and a medical treatment that might prove fatal if administered at any other time in life.

We may make use of this same principle when the actions of the body falter due to lack of power. If the action of a mill falters from a decrease of water power, the gates are closed for the purpose of accumulating power. Activities are ceased and no power is expended. In cases of impaired health, the closing of all the waste gates, through which vital power is needlessly expended, permits the accumulation of power.

The Law of Vital Distribution: In proportion to the importance and need of the various organs and tissues of the body is the power of the body, whether much or little, apportioned out among them.”

The laws of life are as fixed and uniform as the law of gravitation, or any other uniformity of nature. They are immutable, always tending toward perfection, in every particular of the organism, whether the power which they sway is sufficient for the accomplishment of this end, or is greatly inadequate therefor. The distribution of this power is under control of immutable law which wisely and minutely appropriates it where most needed and supplies organs with as much as it can use so long as there is sufficient power to distribute.

The aggregate power of the organism may be regarded as a reservoir of force, capable of being called in any direction or to any point. So, also, the aggregate nutritive resources (tissues and fluids) of the body may be regarded as a reservoir of food capable of being called in any direction or to any point as need arises. In the distribution of power and nutriment no part is permitted to suffer want so long as they are adequate; but where there is scarcity of either power or nutriment, these are distributed in a manner to assure the preservation of the more vital structures first, and then, the remaining supplies are distributed among the less vital structures.

In emergencies, as in so-called disease, the withdrawal of power from some organs or groups of organs and its concentration in other organs or groups of organs is carried out with strict regard for the highest welfare of the organism.

Art cannot, by any possibility, expedite the recuperation or generation of power or increase its quantity at any given time in good health or impaired health. Art can by no possibility secure a more efficient and advantageous distribution and use of the vital powers than would be made by the vital laws if these are left to the undisturbed administration of organic affairs.

Every organ of the body has its particular and specific functions to perform, and with an adequate supply of power, will do its work promptly and well. But with an inadequate supply of power, it falters in its functions and fails to accomplish its work in a thorough, workmanlike manner, yet it always does the best it can and in proportion to its needs. The Law of Vital Distribution will be as vigilant and discriminating in its appropriation of power when all or a number of organs are calling loudly for it, as when all parts are adequately supplied.

The Law of Limitation: “Whenever and wherever the expenditure of vital power has advanced so far that a fatal exhaustion is eminent, a check is put upon the unnecessary expenditure of power and the organism rebels against the further use of even an accustomed ‘stimulant’.”

This is a very poor formulation of this law which I have made. However, it will serve, together with the following explanation to convey the meaning to you.

It often happens that a physician employs a certain “stimulant” in the treatment of a very depleted patient. This seems to “work like a charm.” The patient responds readily. But it becomes necessary to give the “stimulant” in increasingly larger doses, and, finally, the body ceases to respond to it and rebels against its use. In the days when brandy was the medical man’s standby, after this had been given for some time in low states of “disease,” it would pall upon the senses and be loathed by the patient.

If the patient is not too low after one drug has ceased to produce the “desired” effects, it is usually possible to produce these by changing drugs. But when the patient is very low, near death, no drug will produce such effects. When overstimulation has wasted the energies of life almost to the fatal point, the Law of Limitation interposes a hand and prevents their further use. The desire for tobacco, alcohol, opium, or other irritant ceases. There is a loathing for the accustomed drug. It is this law also that withdraws power from the voluntary muscles and from the digestive organs in acute and frequently in chronic disease.

So long as the power is present to respond to the lash of stimulation, drugs are delighted in by the impaired nerves. But when necessary force is no longer present and none is available to be dragooned to the relief of the unfortunate victim of his habits, until the nerves have had an opportunity of replenishing their storehouses, then the true character of the act of stimulation is revealed in all its naked deformity and is abominated by the thoroughly depressed sensibilities.

Inveterate tobacco users sometimes get so low that the tobacco is rejected until the flagging energies are partially recuperated. Inordinate users of alcohol or tea or coffee are liable to the same changes. People whose very lives seem to be bound up in coffee, and who think they cannot live without it, will sometimes have periods during which they loathe it. At such times they are regarded as “very sick” and they are, but they are sick because of the great depletion of their energies.

The Law of Vital Accommodation: “Nature’s Balance Wheel—The response of the vital organism to external stimuli is an instinctive one, based upon a self-preservative instinct which adapts itself to whatever influence it cannot destroy or control.”

The living organism is capable of ordering and arranging its structures, functions, and processes in such a manner as to withstand the action of pathoferic agents and influences with the least amount of wear and tear to itself and to stay its inevitable dissolution for the longest possible time, if these agents and influences are too powerful, too prolonged, or too frequently repeated for it to overcome.

When the French revolutionists destroyed the Bastille, they found a man who had been confined for eighteen years in one of the cells, his only bed a hatchel, a plank pierced with nails, the points of which protruded on the side on which he was forced to lie without protection from the points. The man’s sufferings had been almost beyond endurance for the first two weeks of his incarceration, yet when he was removed by his friends and supplied with a soft bed, he begged to be restored to his bed of nails for he could rest nowhere else. But the same kind of Law of Vital Accommodation, which had made his hatchel endurable would soon have accommodated him to a soft bed. This law cushions the bottoms of the feet of barefoot people, and guards the hands of the manual laborer by a similar cushion.

In the same way there is a hardening and thickening of the delicate membranes lining the mouth, throat, stomach, and intestine of those who habitually employ tobacco, condiments, spices, antiseptic dentrifices, mouth washes and gargles, alcohol, tea, coffee, cathartics, mineral waters, etc., and of the delicate lining of the vagina of those who habitually douche themselves. But this is an expensive business; the business of keeping the system accustomed to the action of irritants so that the sensibilities shall not be kept under torture by these. Such protection does not render them harmless.

The man who habitually indulges in “stimulation” would exhaust and destroy himself with but few indulgences if the organism had no means of curbing its reactions against the “stimulant” and thereby lessening the expenditure of vital power. The first effect of “stimulation” is exaltation of function; if it is long continued, or often repeated, exhaustion with an almost total abolition of function, results. The repeated use of “stimulant” would soon result in death. But its use soon brings a condition in which the organism ceases to respond so readily and violently to the “stimulant.” If the former amount of “Stimulation” is to be received from the “stimulant,” a larger amount of the “stimulant” must be used.

The first smoke or the first chew of tobacco usually occasions a very powerful reaction against it on the part of the organism. The person is made very sick; there is headache, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, weakness, etc. So long as the physiological powers and instincts are undepraved and unimpaired, they instantly perceive the poisonous character of the tobacco and give the alarm to the whole system.

A vigorous effort is made to destroy and eliminate it and the user is forced to throw away his tobacco. But if he continues to repeat the performance, the reaction against it grows less and less with each repetition, until, finally, he is able to use many times the original amount without producing such results. His system learns to tolerate it and adapts itself to its use as far as possible. The system soon becomes depraved and its powers impaired by the use of tobacco, its poisonous character is no longer detected and no alarm is given, rather a craving for the substance is developed. However, the habitual use of any substance that is injurious in itself cannot in any way render it harmless or beneficial and the habitual presence of any such substance is injurious to life, even though no energetic effort is made to resist its action.

Habits, gradually built and long established, cannot usually be suddenly broken. There is no immediate danger to life as a result of sudden breaking off a habit long practiced, but it is often followed by one or more crises more or less severe as the organism seeks to accommodate itself to the changed condition. Because a habit does not seem to be immediately destructive is no evidence that it is not destructive or that it is beneficial. Its secondary effects alone can furnish us with the clue to its influence. A cup of coffee produces an immediate feeling of well-being while no such feeling accompanies the taking of a glass of orange juice. But when the secondary effects of these two substances are viewed, no room for doubt is left as to which of these is really beneficial and which is injurious.

Men live in almost every conceivable climate and under almost every conceivable condition, are subject to all kinds of influences and indulge in many and often very opposite habits. If given time, the body is able to adapt itself to these varying conditions. Only sudden and violent changes become immediately destructive to life. We cannot quickly transfer the Esquimaux to the tropics nor the Hottentot to Greenland. We can suddenly force upon the nonuser the amount of alcohol, arsenic, or opium used by the habitue, only at the expense of life itself.

With a knowledge of the above laws no one need be misled by the claims for the therapeutic virtues contained in some drug, serum, or apparatus. These laws form reliable rules by which to order our life. “The wise will understand.”

Reprinted from The Hygienic System Vol. 1