HOW DISEASE CAN BE CURED AND LIFE PRESERVED. 101 



allow themselves to be misled by it. Let me not be mis- 

 understood. I do not say that there are not some good 

 and useful medicines. But those, for instance, which 

 are useful to regulate the bowels cannot be called blood 

 purifiers. Even those act in different ways — some in- 

 fluencing the functions of the liver and other organs. 

 But none of these actions implies a purification of the 

 blood. There are probably thousands of medicines sold 

 as blood purifiers. Some of them, through being kept 

 constantly before the people, are popular, and occasion- 

 ally they may do some good, or, if they do not, people 

 think they do. They are announced as being free from 

 mineral compounds, and the medicine man declares they 

 are made exclusively from herbs, roots, barks, seeds, and 

 so on. Now, the fact is that those things would ferment 

 and they would promote fermentation in the blood, and 

 to prevent that the manufacturer of the compound uses 

 alcohol or whiskey as a preservative. If he did not do 

 that the stuff would breed microbes in the bottle in 

 which it is sold. 



Any one can prove this for himself by taking some of 

 the vegetable compounds and diluting them with water, 

 or making an infusion of the roots or herbs ; add to them 

 any of the fluids or excretions of the body — add the fer- 

 ment with the medicine — and keep the mixture closed in a 

 bottle. In a short time you will see whether or not the 

 medicine has prevented fermentation. You need not be 

 an expert with the microscope. You will see the pro- 

 cess going on rapidly. If, then, the medicine that you 

 are asked to take increases fermentation, how in the 

 world is it going to cure you ? This experiment you can 

 pursue with any of the nostrums that are offered to the 

 public and which are prescribed, and you can learn for 

 yourself, without swallowing them, whether they are 

 likely to accomplish what is promised for them. Or you 

 may take a piece of lean meat, place it in a bottle with 

 any of the popular medicines, and see whether they pre- 

 vent fermentation and the formation of microbes. 



This, however, must be remembered : Suppose that 



