THE OARDEN DOCTOE 



CHAPTER I 



THE PLAUT rS HEALTH 



No one can attain an intelligent conception of the 

 meaning of disease unless he appreciates the meaning 

 of good health. In old time, " blight," an expression 

 which covered aU mysterious sicknesses, was regarded 

 as punishment imposed by an outraged Deity for 

 some transgression, wilful or unconscious, of laws 

 which the sufferer only imperfectly knew. " Blight " 

 generally is a punishment, and often a thoroughly 

 just punishment : the perfectly natural and in- 

 evitable result of the transgression, wilful or un- 

 conscious, of natural laws which the sufferer only 

 imperfectly knows. A thorough understanding of 

 those laws, and a rigid abstention on the part of aU 

 from transgressing them, would do more to ehminate 

 disease than aU the drugs of aU the physicians of aU 

 the ages. This is a general truth, and apphes to our 

 treatment of plants as well as to ourselves. Our 



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