MAN THE MYSTERIOUS.

CHAPTER XX. MAN THE MYSTERIOUS.

A modest but wise doctor once said to the writer: "If the truth be told, we know nothing." I am inclined to echo those sentiments, for truth to tell, the more we find out, the more we discover how little we really know. Through all the Ages, despite philosophies, religions and sciences, Man still remains a mystery, and very often upsets all our pet theories. There are men who seem to break practically all the rules of health, and who smoke from morning till night, and yet live to a ripe old age, having had nothing more serious to contend with than an occasional cold in the head. There are other people who nave ailed all their lives but none the less contrive to live till 85 or longer, on the principle that "a rusty gate swings long"! How are we to account for such things? All we can lamely say is that they are the exceptions which prove the rule, which by the way, is a very foolish adage. One writer has suggested that some people are born with "fool‐proof" bodies! He may be right, but why are they thus born? Astrologers tell us that the precise moment, day and year, an entity is born into the world has a marked influence on his or her type of body. Some scientists who at first scoffed at this idea are now beginning to think there may be scientific reasons for it. "Fools deride, philosophers investigate" ...if they have the time! Astrologers further tell us that people borr at a certain time of the year are more liable to suffer from certain weaknesses and diseases than are people born at another time of the year, this being largely due so their particular type of body. (See Man and The Zodiac, by David Anrias. In

this book are illustrations of the 12 different types of bodies.) If this be true, though I am not in a position to commit myself for or against it, it goes to explain why disease, which is a unity, manifests in so many different ways. For instance, it is said that those born between March 21st and April 20th are apt to suffer from troubles connected with the head, face or brain, whereas, for instance, those born between the same days of September, October, may suffer from afflictions of the lower abdomen or kidneys, or both ‐that is, provided they do not take suitable measures to avoid such troubles. (See Health, Diet and Commonsense, by Cyril Scott.) This, I grant, may sound all very far‐ fetched, but I have learnt never to scoff at what I do not understand. Although I have proved up to the hilt the efficacy of urine‐therapy, it still contains for me a lot that is mysterious. When I ask myself why should urine when taken by the mouth especially select those organs which require rebuilding, I can offer no more rational explanation than the doctor who tells us that certain drugs will affect certain organs. Not that doctors agree on this point, for a doctor once said in my presence that he left college with sixty remedies for every disease, and found in the first ten years of his practice that he had sixty or more serious diseases to match his drugs, but no cures! It was this man who also said

he found people who had no treatment lived the longest and suffered the least, the inference to be drawn being that most people died of the doctor and not of the disease! This worthy physician was a very candid man. But he would not have needed to make this admission had he employed urine‐therapy instead of his sixty drugs. The advantage of urine ‐therapy is its extreme simplicity as anyone can see without the telling. It is not a specific for any given disease, it is a specific for health. It is also a prophylaxis against a number of annoying "trifles" which are he found people who had no treatment lived the longest and suffered the least, the inference to be drawn being that most people died of the doctor and not of the disease! This worthy physician was a very candid man. But he would not have needed to make this admission had he employed urine‐therapy instead of his sixty drugs. The advantage of urine ‐therapy is its extreme simplicity as anyone can see without the telling. It is not a specific for any given disease, it is a specific for health. It is also a prophylaxis against a number of annoying "trifles" which are

Those who read that widely known book Mother India may remember some passages therein devoted to the "filthy habits" of the native peoples. Among the health "superstitions" its authoress pointed out, was the belief that the waters of one part of a famous river in North Middle India possesses healing properties. People bathed in and drank its waters. Wondering whether there could be something more than faith in the cures effected, she had samples of the water analysed by European analysts. The healing liquid proved to be nothing more than a weak solution of urine and aqua pura!

And with this startling denouement I will end this chapter.