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Valere Aude by Louis Dechmann

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Valere Aude
(DARE TO BE HEALTHY)

_or_

THE LIGHT _of_ PHYSICAL REGENERATION


A vade mecum on
BIOLOGY _and the_ HYGIENIC-DIETETIC
METHOD _of_ HEALING


By
Dr. Louis Dechmann
Biologist _and_ Physiological Chemist


Second Edition (Compendium) 1919
SEATTLE. WASHINGTON
Christmas 1918


WASHINGTON PRINTING COMPANY
SEATTLE USA
1919




DEDICATION

"Dispel this cloud, the light of Heaven restore;
Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more!"

(Pope)


To you of that great voiceless multitude,

"THE PEOPLE"--

You whose bewildered cry is still for light; whose silent tragedy our
well beloved Longfellow could so well portray:

"O suffering sad humanity!
O ye afflicted ones, who lie
Steeped to the lips in misery,
Longing, and yet afraid to die,
Patient, though sorely tried!"

To you and your needs this brief epitome of a coming greater work is
given as a fitting Christmas offering--

"LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

It is the cry which despairing, deluded humanity, in the darkness of its
frenzied ignorance, has flung back hopelessly to heaven since first the
spirit of an Infinite Intelligence brooded upon the race. It is the
appeal of man's immortal unity to the All-Father, from age to age, for
knowledge sufficient for its hourly needs, since ever, back in the far
dim ages of the earth, primeval man, beetle-browed, furtive and
fashioned fearsomely, first felt the faint vibration of a Soul; and,
like an awakened giant, that chief of human faculties, a Mind took form
which, pressing on along the uncertain way, has scaled the giddy heights
of knowledge where genius, enthroned, does battle with an envious world
of shams and greed and venal prejudice. Led by the resistless pulse of
power it follows still that "banner with a strange device:
Excelsior!";--for, ever onward yet it wends its way where'er the devious
pathway trends, whose troubled, varied course is time, whose bourne is
in eternity.

But where seek we, then, the answer to a cry so shrill, that smites the
high face of heaven from a world in pain?

Shall we seek it where false learning leads us in the quest?--Ah no.

It comes, not in the crash of Sinai's thunders with the rockings of a
riven sphere, as in the allegoric stories of a puerile past.

Softly it falls--yes, almost fearfully--from the fervid lips of some
lone world-neglected persecuted man--some patient toil-worn son of
science, whom Genius loves to call her own--though, haply, to the
schools, to fortune and to fame unknown. One whose transcendent,
superconscious mind has dared, Prometheus-like, to snatch from heaven
the fire of the immortal gods and offer it in benefits to all mankind.

Thrice happy he upon the sensory surface of whose open mind such seeds
of knowledge and of wisdom fall, and happy the land where one and all
may dare to warm chill hands and hearts before its sacred flame; that
halcyon land, the Ultima Thule of our fond imaginings, wherein true
freedom reigns; wherein the legalized tyranny of the chartered
libertines of a so-called learned profession shall be finally relegated,
in common cause to the limbo of a sordid and degraded past. For these
are they who seek to maintain a strangle-hold on science, who paralyze
the arm of individual research and, even in this advancing age, still
block the path of progress and of peace, of universal freedom and
equality of intellect, to all beyond the narrow limits of their own
elect.

Thus then, to the free fraternity of the open mind I dedicate this
brief resume of the product of long years of study and of toil,
steadfastly believing that therein is found the missing dimension for
their urgent need, suited alike to all who hold that to maintain the
health of body and of mind is a worthy object for enlightened man. To
you, mothers of the land, who recognize your duty, towards God and to
the State, to rear your children healthy, strong and good to look upon.
To all whose keener common-sense looks upon Nature, the Creator, as
logically therefore, the healing power also. To all endowed with wit to
understand the obvious truth that, not by poisonous drugs is healing
wrought, but by such reasonable help as man's intelligence can afford,
to second nature's effort to that end; and further, that, in order to
achieve success, it is useless to attack, suppress or remove the
symptoms of disease by force of drugging or the knife, whilst the
_cause_ of the evil is left untouched, unthought of, and, too
frequently, unknown. Truth and reason alike proclaim: remove the cause
and the symptom _must_ disappear.

To all, then, to whom the ever blessed triad of health, hope, and
happiness on earth, are dear, the sanctity of child-life and the
improvement of the race; and especially to those whose clearer mental
vision can grasp the stupendous fact of eternal Universal Unity--the
oneness with that mighty Primal Cause, the great Life Principle,
immanent and active throughout all nature; can grasp and assimilate the
idea that everything that has life is, each in its separate form and
degree, but a medium through which the Infinite Universal Source of
Life--that vast, ineffable power which we, blindly, designate as God--or
Good--seeks expression in the scheme of evolution whose aim sublime is
pure perfection, as its ultimate, attainable, though far off goal.
Directed and attracted by an intelligence we call divine, it is a hope,
instinct with ability, implanted by that Power in the soul of man, as
patent in his ceaseless struggle upward toward the light of fuller
knowledge; it is a power, restricted, only in degree, by that individual
sense of human limitations fostered by false prophets and grounded in
the vitals of the race.

To you all, this brief precis is presented, as a guide, with the
author's benediction, coupled with the fervent hope that, reading the
scientific deductions and precepts therein contained you, too, may see
Regeneration's Light and seeing, may

"_Dare to be Healthy._"

LOUIS DECHMANN,

_Christmas, 1918. Seattle, Wash._



"Dare to be Healthy"




FORE-WORD


_To the Reader_:

The volume, shortly to be published, and to which the ensuing pages are
designed to serve the purpose of stepping-stone or forecast, has been
compiled for the purpose of placing before the public the experiences of
thirty-five full years of my life as a biologist and physiological
chemist, devoted to the sifting and solution of vital problems of health
and eugenics and in the practice of the resultant knowledge of the laws
of life discovered in the course of my research.

I would beseech you, in your own vital interest, to peruse these pages
thoughtfully and with an open mind. There are throughout America
already, thousands of steadfast disciples who are daily reaping the
benefits of the teachings contained therein; and I would that you also
may be added to that goodly multitude, to enjoy together with them the
best advantages emanating from systematic study along the most advanced
lines of modern thought and science. The facts are correlated and
simply expressed with the earnest desire to bring within the scope of
the layman the good that may accrue. It is, however, not for the laymen
alone that this work is undertaken, but for unprofessional and
professional alike, be he medical student or practitioner or other
interested person; for to each and all I present herein the best that a
lifetime of research has enabled me to wring from nature's secret store
for the betterment and conservation of human life and the help of human
kind.

In the development of my movement I have formulated a system under which
all may participate in the benefits of my message, though possibly
prevented by circumstances in some cases from coming within direct
personal contact with myself.

This system comprises the following:

The "Dare to be Healthy" Club.

The "Dare to be Healthy" Lecture Course.

The "Dare to be Healthy" Hygienic Dietetic Course.

Full particulars regarding these will appear at a subsequent point in
this prospectus.

LOUIS DECHMANN.




INTRODUCTION

"... Argentea proles,
Auro deterior, fulvo pretiosior aere."

(Ovid)


Succeeding times a silver age behold
Excelling brass, but more excelled by Gold.


Hessiod, in his celebrated distribution of mankind, divides the species
into three orders of intellect.

"The first place," says he, "belongs to him who can, by his own powers,
discern what is fit and right, and penetrate to the remoter motives of
action.

"The second place is claimed by him who is willing to hear instruction
and can perceive right and wrong when they are shown to him by
another;--but he who hath neither acuteness nor docility--who can
neither find the way by himself, nor will be led by others, is a wretch
without use or value."

"You are seeking truth," quoth Adalbert von Chamisso, "_Remember that
the world clings more firmly to superstition than to faith_,"--or, to
borrow expression from an equally inspired source,--remember that
perverse humanity rarely fails to favour, rather, what Shakespeare terms
"_The seeming truth which cunning times put on to entrap the wisest._"

Courageous, then, must be the knight who sets his lance in rest to tilt
against the windmills of the world.

Nevertheless, although the truth is still banned as "heterodox" by
common consent--or tacit connivance--an attitude patent to commercial
instincts in view of the cataclysm which must naturally ensue, with
deadly results to the vested interests of orthodoxy, so soon as the
long-trusted barriers of plausible and pretentious mystery and
importance shall be swept away by the rising tide of popular
indignation. When the masses become educated to discriminate between
truth and falsehood and thus shall come into their rights, then and not
till then, will the dawn of physical salvation break.

Still, I maintain, there are, and have been all along the way, eminent
medical men of high intelligence, who, unlike the drones of the medical
hive, have dared to think for themselves and have even dared to speak
their thoughts.

Thus, for instance, spoke Sir William W. Gull, Physician to her late
Majesty Queen Victoria: "Having passed the period of the goldheaded cane
and horsehair wig, we dare hope to have also passed the days of pompous
emptiness; and furthermore, _we can hope that nothing will be considered
unworthy the attention of physicians which contributes to the saving of
life_."

Again, an authority of the first rank, Prof. Oesterlin, says in his
noted work on the Materia Medica:

"_The studious physician of our century will hardly expect to accomplish
by force, through some strange drug or other, that which only nature can
bring about when assisted by all the rational accessories of hygiene and
dietetics._

_Nature alone can furnish the beneficient means, sufficient for all
needs_,"--which the science of medicine never has afforded and never
can.

As we survey the civilization of our age and its medical science, we
see, on the one hand, the crude superstitions of the masses, the subtler
superstitions of the educated classes; gross materialism, bewildering
Darwinism, pessimism, and degenerate political economy; on the other
hand, unmitigated quackery and cupidity, with its weight of oppression
on humanity,--everywhere confusion instead of harmony.

Very surely,--and perhaps more speedily than we think--a reaction will
come, when our present degenerate system of medical subterfuge--misnamed
science--will have passed away, to be replaced by accredited methods of
natural healing consistent with the dignity of an enlightened,
self-respecting people.




"Ignorance is the curse of God:
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven"

(Shakespeare)

THE HYGIENIC-DIETETIC METHOD OF HEALING


Biology, the Science of life, has developed under my hand that system of
natural healing which I practice, in common with some of the most
successful physicians on the continents of Europe and America.

Although based upon the same biological laws, their systems of
therapy--or healing--differ materially from one another. My system is
entirely my own, developed during the last thirty-five years to that
degree of perfection it has attained today.

I am, naturally, honestly proud of the success achieved during this
strenuous period, yet am I still as anxiously imbued as ever with the
spirit and habit of research which is now directed to the endeavour to
further simplify my method of treatment, by further discoveries in the
realm of that most abstruse of the sciences, _Physiological Chemistry_.

In this baffling but wonderful domain I am inspired by the ambitious
hope that some, at any rate, of the many unsolved problems of the
Science of Life may yet give up their secrets to the demand of my
persistency, exerted in the interest of the well-being of humanity.

After centuries devoted by the faculty to a futile and arrogant attempt
to counteract the disturbances of health, which we call diseases, in the
stereotyped manner known as "orthodox;" after endless complications,
infinite "specializing"--in itself a futility--and unblushing complicity
with the powers that be, we find them now at length, baffled,
discredited, but unashamed, cast back, discomforted, upon Mother
Nature's kindly breast, their victims humbly seeking healing in simple
unity from her ample store.

Based upon this firm foundation, we term the new departure the "Natural
Method of Healing."

The greatest physicians of all time, from Hippocrates to our own day,
were satisfied to be simply _natural_ physicians. They were not
satisfied to merely suppress the symptoms of suffering and to quiet the
sufferer by abnormal appliances. Their higher, more ambitious aim was to
reach the active source of distress--and in this they succeeded.

For, not only did they achieve where others failed, but, in addition to
healing, they also _prevented the recurrence_ of disease, and, more
noteworthy still, they established a system of Prophylactic Therapy,
which is the highest function of the healing art; namely, the
_prevention of disease_ by treatment _before full development_, or, in
other words, the _preservation of health_.

It is not the object of this brief brochure to enter into the devious
details which a full explanation of this practical, successful, modern
method would require. It is designed merely for those who, after
experiencing disappointment and failure in other directions, have had
recourse, as a last alternative, to advice and assistance, from myself.

Such patients, as a rule, have heard of my method from others; have
heard that it differs widely, in its frank simplicity, from the empty
pomposity of the old-school "orthodox" elements, though of the
principles of the old-school teaching they have really little or no
conception, beyond a crude, unwholesome, fear of the unknown, consequent
upon the, _very necessary_, veil of mystery with which its votaries
surround themselves--a semi-superstitious sentiment inherited from a
malignant past and one which does little credit to the vaunted modern
civilization of today.

On this point of difference they ask for enlightenment, and naturally
enquire as to the nature of both, but especially of this new hope which
is held out to them as a refuge in their hour of despair.

This information it is equally my duty and my desire to give, and in the
most convenient and simple form, shorn of all shroud of mystery; for my
object is to educate and not to conceal.

It is my chief desire that patients should thoroughly understand the
methods and principles of the New-School of Healing and should exercise
their own intelligence as to its merits as compared with the old, and,
being once thoroughly convinced--not by faith, or fear, or fashion, nor
yet biased by the unfair influence of the false prestige of a legalized
monopoly detrimental to the interest of the people--they should
forthwith honestly test the new deliverance by faithfully following my
advice and instruction, to their own unfailing ultimate benefit and
relief.

As a labour of love towards the world in general and the people of my
adopted country in particular, I have made it my duty to formulate the
substance of my researches in the field of science--researches which
represent the struggles of a lifetime--in a large and comprehensive work
which, to the scientist as well as to the laymen, will constitute in the
most detailed and complete degree a reliable guide to the conservation
of health which, even now, in the immediate present, has come to be
regarded not only as a scientific phase of education, but as a duty
incumbent upon every citizen. Should sickness supervene, as well it may
sometimes, despite all reasonable precaution, the knowledge and
instructions contained therein are sufficient, if closely followed, to
prevent, for the most part, the serious consequences of disease and to
afford the patient the necessary enlightenment to enable him to
co-operate with the hygienic-dietetic physician in the task of restoring
him to health and ability.

This book, entitled "_Regeneration_" or "_Dare to be Healthy_," will
consist of some three thousand or more pages. It will be published
shortly; and, in the common interests of human health will, I trust,
find prominent place on the book-shelf of every home whose inmates
either belong to the ever increasing number of the followers of my
patients, or who, by careful study of my teachings therein contained,
may be finding their independent way back from the dreary depths of
suffering to the glad plains of health.

In following up the general outline of the "New Regeneration" these
pages will not lend themselves to the otherwise necessary encounter with
what are now admitted to be the recognized errors of the, temporarily
dominant, medical school, save in so far as it may be requisite to
remove from the mind of the layman pernicious and antiquated ideas to
which he has been long and persistently educated, or to protect those
who have ceased to believe in them from the pitfalls to which, as an
alternative, they may be exposed amongst the numberless unscientific,
quasi-miraculous, healing cults, or the equally pernicious nostrums of
the spectacular advertising medicine vendor, both of whom reap golden
harvests among the ranks of the so justly disappointed and despairing
people.

* * * * *

It is, nevertheless, an imperative duty to issue this necessary warning;
namely, that the public should safeguard itself against the absurd, but
possible mistakes of confusing the Legitimate Scientific School of the
Hygienic Dietetic Method of Biological Healing with the nebulous cults
aforesaid. There is no vestige of resemblance between them, either in
thought or principle, and nothing could be more fatal and foreign to the
truth.

* * * * *

There is one thing, and one only, which, like the rest of the community,
we share with them in common, and this is that _growing spirit of
profound distrust_ with which all classes seem daily more and more
constrained to regard the Medical Fraternity and all its ways.

It is the general knowledge of the existence of this sentiment which has
called into being the present epidemic of curious cults and
catholicons--due, it would appear, more to this insidious temptation to
such _commercial enterprise_ than to any other cause--and which form so
prominent a feature throughout all sections of the community--and
especially in the press--throughout the length and breadth of the land.
To such, in an alarming degree, the public turns, in protest, as it
were, against the tyranny and turpitude of this "learned profession,"
with its kindred corporations and its studied callous disregard of
scientific advancement in any direction which might tend to jeopardize
or reduce the profitable exercise of its own obsolete methods, its
system of poisonous medicaments, and dangerous operations and
anti-toxins.

There is no possible efficacy or help to be derived from other
teachings, whatsoever they may be, except from those based absolutely
upon the solid foundation of biological fact. Since Johannes Mueller
(1833) wrote the first book on physiology and its chemistry, more than
a thousand so-called "Authorities" in that branch of science have tried
to find some of the secrets of nature pertaining to physiology. A very
few (about 10 or 12) may be named as great men who discovered certain
laws and solved certain problems. But the majority added nothing to
Mueller's discoveries. Most of them became teachers or authors, one
plagiarizing the work of the other, eulogy being very liberally
distributed on all sides, but valuable deductions from the great
masters, very few have been able to make, and even those were more or
less suppressed by the "orthodox school." In less than half the time
since 1833, i.e. 85 years, it was my good fortune to give more valuable
deductions and practical applications to the student and the reader,
than the mediocre talents of the "old school" were able to give.

* * * * *

I pretend to no miracles and expect none; nor do I arrogate to myself
any so-called _super_-natural secrets or powers; I simply maintain that,
aided by the erudition of the great scientists of the past and present,
this system has finally been brought to a point which should rightly
have been always the chief aim of Medical Science, namely, an _exact
knowledge of human nature and the human organism, as it is_.

With this vital knowledge at command I have been able to successfully
formulate a system for supplying the individual organism with any of the
various constituents of which it may be deficient, in a manner in which
it can best receive and assimilate the same, thereby maintaining a
correct balance between the constituents of the blood wherein lies
hidden the sole criterion of health and the fatal secret of disease.

Simple as this may sound, the way has been long and lonely until that
elusive goal was reached; and, even now, in the heat of the controversy
which ensues, we find ourselves sometimes in a somewhat parlous
position, placed, as it were, between two fires; on the one side are
those who, though not without sympathetic feeling for the
well-intentioned, earnest-minded believers in the errors now being
exposed, yet cast aside all scruples in the interest of humanity and
truth. On the other side are those obsessed by care and compunction for
these accredited practitioners who by reason of age or temperament are
unable or unwilling to assimilate new ideas or to relinquish the
theories of a life time in order to enter the field of competition with
the men of a younger generation.

Such is the impasse before which we stand.




REGENERATION OF THE RACE

BY THE LIGHT OF BIOLOGY AIDED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY.

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body, being many, are one body:... whether one member
suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it."

(St. Paul, I Corinthians, XII. 12 & 26.)

"_DYSAEMIA, or Impure Blood is the cause and source of disorder in
all constitutional diseases. So spoke the Master. Believe it who
will, that, in a nutshell, is 'the burden of my song'--the Alpha
and Omega of my teaching_."

(From Chapter X. "Dare to be Healthy.")


_The Process of Natural Healing_ is the art of curing diseases by
natural methods.

As natural remedies, only those may be included which stand as vital
conditions in constant relation to the organism, assimilable thereby.

Among these are no poisons or chemical preparations, such as were
promulgated by Paracelsus and the medicasters; for these are elements
abnormal to the body, and call forth its reactionary powers, and so,
being useless, they are eliminated; or, after having served an improper
purpose, to _suppress_ some symptom of disease, they become embedded in
the tissues, there causing various forms of medicinal complication or
morbid condition.

Do we not produce blood poisons enough by our irrational diet and modes
of living? The human body is a microcosm--a world in minature--and as
such, exists in constant interchange with universal nature.

A definite relationship exists between it and the solid, fluid and
gaseous elements.

Solid food, water and air, elements of the universe, must become
elements of our bodies, if relations of universal unity are to be
maintained.

There must be a constant interchange of organic matter, and this
inter-transmission is the cause of life, of health, and of disease;
therefore, we must first of all see that the conditions of this process
are uninterrupted.

Food, air, water, light, exercise, must be so provided that they
condition the process of nutrition and metamorphosis.

Skin, lungs, kidneys, intestines, must always be in condition to
eliminate the abnormal products of decomposition.

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