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   The mineral elements discussed in the previous chapter are normally present in animal and human bodies and therefore are not poisonous in themselves unless ingested in the inorganic mineral form. There are, however, many inorganic and organic substances so inimical to health and life that Nature never designed either animal or human bodies to receive them as foods or medicine. They are always poisonous to the system, even when taken in small quantities, and have a strong tendency to accumulate in parts and organs for which they exhibit particular affinity. Their presence and location is shown in the iris by well defined signs and discolorations as presented in the color plate on page 116. In the following I shall describe some of the best known and most widely used of these poisons, their signs in the iris and their effects upon the system.

   In the majority of cases the iris plainly displays signs of poisonous substances. However, when the diagnostician describes these poison records in the iris, the patient frequently denies with vehemence ever having taken "anything of the kind". He is unmindful of the following facts:

   First, that poisons are absorbed and thereafter remain indefinitely in certain parts of the system unless eliminated by radical methods.

   Second, that in the treatment of some "trifling children's disease", frequently enough poisons are given to affect the vital organs and the iris for life.

   Third, that poisons may be absorbed not only from patent medicines and remedies prescribed by physicians, but in various other ways, as lead from water pipes and glassware, from paints and printer's type; mercury in mines, smelters, mirror factories and from cosmetics; arsenic from green colors, wall paper, stuffed animals, etc. Almost every known poison is now used extensively in the arts and industries and in the preparation of multitudinous foods and other articles for daily use.

   Reports of government chemists in Washington, whose duty it is to examine food products for purity and quality, reveal astonishing conditions. They show that almost every kind of food for sale in grocery and market is contaminated or adulterated with deleterious substances, inorganic minerals, anilin dyes and various sorts of chemicals and poisons.

   Comments like the following by Dr. Wiley are common in magazines and the daily press, and are of interest in this connection:

   "Professor Wiley's reference was particularly to the anilin dyes, derived from coal tar, which are used for coloring jellies and wines, as well as a great number of other food products and drinkables. Not long ago the Bureau of Chemistry dyed experimentally a number of pieces of white silk with chemical colors obtained from various liquors and articles of diet put up for commercial purposes.

   "Preserved cherries, utilized in this manner, furnished a yard of pink silk; currant jam a yard of salmon silk; port wine a yard of purple silk; Burgundy wine a yard of magenta silk; tomato catsup a yard of light red silk, etc. The "rosaline" used for coloring corned beef and sausage gave a dye of a beautiful and brilliant red. But in this line nothing has been found so suggestive of the rainbow as soda water syrups, which, taken in a bunch, are a chemical polychrome.

   ''The cheap candies which the children buy are of times most deleterious, containing clay, arsenic, sulphate of copper, and even prussic acid. Also, they are colored with the deadly anilin dyes. Many of the cheaper brands of chocolate on the market are composed mainly of starch and animal fat. They do not taste much like chocolate, but they easily pass for it, with the addition of oxid of iron--that is to say, iron rust--to give the requisite color.

   "One plate of cheap ice cream analyzed at the Bureau of Chemistry was found to contain as much fusel oil as five glasses of bad whisky. Of strawberry flavor, or what passed for such, it was in truth a chemical compound.

   "A medicinal dose of sulphate of copper is three grains. Eat three small, artificially greened pickles, and you will get an equal quantity of this dangerous chemical. The salts of copper and zinc are commonly employed to give a green color to peas, beans and other vegetables preserved for market in cans or glass jars."

   Reports like the foregoing explain how certain poison signs may appear in the iris, even when the victim is unaware of "ever having taken such things".

   Many people believe that the passage of the Pure Food Law has done away with wholesale food poisoning. They are seriously mistaken. All that the Pure Food Law prohibits is the use of poisonous substances in quantities large enough to injure the human body immediately. The law does not take into consideration the fact that the destructive effects may be cumulative and remote. In this respect the government falls into the same error as the medical profession. This is not to be wondered at since representatives of the allopathic school of medicine have assisted in framing these laws.

   A single dose of a certain drug poison given as medicine or used as a food preservative may not be harmful, but these poisons, as proved by the records in the iris, have a tendency to accumulate in the system in certain parts or organs for which they exhibit a special affinity. Therefore many small consecutive doses of poisonous medicines or food preservatives or adulterants will in time produce the effect of a big dose. This explains the presence of the signs of boric acid salicylites, copper, lead, zinc, coal tar poisons, etc., in the eyes of people who "do not know of ever having taken these things".

   Some time ago in a public clinic I detected in the iris of a young man the evidences of strychnin, iodin, quinin and mercury. He strenuously denied having taken so many poisons.

   "My doctor," said he, "does not believe in giving strong medicines, and I am sure I have never taken all that stuff."

   I asked him to bring to the next clinic some of his doctor's prescriptions. A few days later he complied with the request and brought two of the most recent ones. Both contained three of the poisons which the diagnosis had revealed in the iris. Of course he had taken the same drugs many years ago. Otherwise they would not have shown in the iris at the time of the diagnosis.

   The following incident illustrates that the records in the iris are frequently much more reliable than the memory of the patient. Several years ago an elderly woman came for diagnosis and treatment. The outer margins of her iris showed distinctly the whitish flakes of arsenic (Color plate, Fig. b, p. 116) and in the left cerebrum a heavy red blotch of iodin. Referring to the signs of arsenic, I said to her, "You suffer with severe pains all over your body and your muscles are sensitive to touch."

   She acknowledged that "rheumatism" and multiple neuritis had for many years been the curse of her life. Referring to the iodin spot in the left brain, I continued my diagnosis: "You must have had severe chronic left side headaches."

   This she also confirmed. For twenty years she had never been free from an excruciating headache; as she expressed it, "It often seemed my head would split in two."

   Naturally she wished to learn the cause of her long continued suffering, but when I informed her that arsenic and iodin were responsible for her "rheumatism" and chronic headaches, she denied ever having taken these drugs.

   "In my younger years," said she, "before these ailments developed, I was a strong, healthy girl and never took medicines of any kind. How could arsenic and iodin have caused these troubles?"

   A few weeks later, however, in consultation she inadvertently remarked that her husband, who was a musician, employed his leisure hours by stuffing the skins of wild animals.

   "Did he use arsenic in his taxidermic work?" I inquired.

   "Oh, yes," she answered. "He often explained to me that his animals were so well preserved because he used large quantities of arsenic in their preparation."

   "Did you have many of these animals around the house?"

   "They were in the parlor, sitting room and in the bedrooms." .

   Noticing my smile, she added, "I see now where the arsenic and the 'rheumatism' came from."

   I then continued, "Now, let us find out where the iodin came from."

   Her interest in the diagnosis being thoroughly aroused, she cogitated a few moments over past experiences and then exclaimed, "How could I have forgotten? Twenty five years ago, when a servant in Berlin, I accidentally hurt my knee. A painful swelling followed. The cook told me to go into her room and take some medicine that had cured her rheumatism and would be just the thing for my knee."

   "Acting on the suggestion, I took a good swallow from the cook's bottle. That was the last I remembered for several days. When I regained consciousness I was told that the medicine was a strong preparation of iodin for external use only."

   Prospective patients expect to hear from us the same old familiar Greek and Latin names which they have heard from other doctors, professors and specialists. If the diagnostician from the iris fails to employ the same familiar terms, they are skeptical of the diagnosis.

   Suppose a doctor, listening to a patient who describes his changing aches and pains should say to him, "My dear sir, you suffer with moving pains," the patient would answer indignantly, "I know that myself; I want to know what my disease is." If the doctor tells him he has "rheumatism", which (in English) means nothing more nor less than "moving pains", his client is perfectly satisfied, pays his fee and goes home well pleased that he now knows what ails him. He has "rheumatism".

   Several weeks ago a woman came to me for diagnosis. The iris revealed the greenish wreath of mercury in the region of brain and spinal cord. The areas of stomach, bowels and liver were dark brown. The following conversation took place:

   "For many years you have been suffering from indigestion, chronic constipation and sluggishness of the liver. To better conditions, you have taken a great deal of calomel."

   "It is the only way I can keep my bowels open and my liver active." "Of late years you have had shooting pains in the back, the lower limbs and around the stomach. The calomel, which is mercury, is causing inflammation of the spinal cord."

   The woman confirmed every symptom revealed by the records in the eyes, but did not return for treatment. Several days later a friend of hers informed me that she was not at all satisfied because I had failed to tell her she had rheumatism. "Every other doctor has told me I have rheumatism," she had complained, "and if the diagnosis from the iris cannot show that much it is not to be relied upon." As a matter of fact she is in the advanced stages of locomotor ataxia.

   As before stated, not all poisons taken, injuries sustained, nor all pathological lesions show in the iris. Many times we are disappointed by not finding the lesions we are looking for. Drug poisons may be eliminated from the system in some cases more readily than in others. Individuals differ greatly in drug tolerance. That is, some eliminate certain poisons very readily and very thoroughly while others are permanently affected by even small doses.

   Hahnemann, speaking of mercury, said, "Some people are so susceptible to this drug that even a few doses of it make them 'weather prophets' for life."

   Iridology is a comparatively new science and many things about it remain to be discovered and to be explained. We do claim, however, that the well proven facts which we already possess are sufficient to make this new science of immense value to the diagnostician and physician.

   Mercury, iodin and arsenic are the principal alteratives. The multitudinous preparations of these drugs are used by the allopathic school principally in the treatment of syphilis. Should you ask a doctor how these drugs cure disease, if truthful he would have to answer, "We do not know." Sajous tries to explain the action of mercury and other alteratives by saying they stimulate the activity of the ductless glands. For this assertion, however, he cannot produce the slightest proof.

   A medical dictionary which I have before me gives the following definition: "Alteratives are certain remedies that alter the course of morbid conditions in some way not yet understood, perhaps by promoting metabolism. We know, for instance, that mercury cures syphilitic sores or arsenic chronic skin diseases, but we do not know how or why."

   The solution of the problem seems so obvious that it is hard to understand how and why it has baffled medical science so long. The fundamental law of cure will help us to solve the mystery. According to this law all acute diseases are the result of Nature's efforts to expel inner latent morbid encumbrances. In other words, acute diseases represent increased and specialized activity of vital force.

   When we introduce into the system, in the form of mercury, iodin or arsenic, a stronger and more dangerous enemy than the constitutional disease taint which Nature is trying to eliminate, then the healing forces, like good tacticians, leave the weaker foe for a time and turn to repel the new and more dangerous invader.

   A man attacked by a child easily defends himself, but when confronted by a powerful adult, turns from the weaker foe to the stronger. Similarly the healing forces of the human organism turn from their fight against local or constitutional disease taint to defend themselves against the stronger drug poison. The disease taints recede into the system, the surface symptoms disappear, the patient thinks he is cured, but the doctor knows better because in medical college he has been taught "Never guarantee a cure".

   After a while Nature may reassert herself and make another attempt to eliminate the disease poisons. Again and again her benevolent efforts are suppressed until the entire organism is saturated with mercury or other alteratives to the point where vital force, weakened and defeated in every quarter, can no longer react against the disease taints.

   This process of progressive poisoning may have to be maintained for two or three years before vital force is effectually defeated and bound; then the patient is told he "may now safely marry".

   What is the real state of affairs? The outward manifestations of healing activity, the scrofulous, syphilitic or tuberculous sores, the itch or eczema have disappeared from the surface, but these disorders are by no means cured. On their retreat into the interior, the danger from the disease taints is always great and it often happens that they invade and destroy vital parts and organs. The external discharge or ulcer may become internal tuberculosis or cancer.

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