History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 83

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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became a self-taught and practical' servetot. 11 Is Elizabeth Halde man, who emigrated to the. . with her father, John Fisher, in IS13. She is still . in the enjoyment of good health, in the seventy yvor of her age. She possesses rare qualities of both hear' an .! mind, and has filled well her mission in life.

DE Ha koman's early life was spent in acquiring an ed ncation; but before he had fairly emerged from boy- how'd he lost his health. He tried the me as of the Albreth, Homeopathy and Eclectic without meding 3 .. . health he sought, and receiving, as b be loved, nothing but mjuny from the treatment of all the physi in whom he Sterren, and being dissatisfied with their explanations at its undlady, and their talk about the remedies . top wei. e rastermined to investigate the subject ter himself; he .. however, no idea of ever be outing a physician . salth was lost ; if he did not regain it he would be ..... to himself and to the world. He determined to .. all to that primary consideration, and let the : 1. ... i 'ke care of itself Having no love for, of interest 1 . sistem but the true one, he determined to satisfy : possible, what was true. This observation w are, however, were continually leading him . . th in drug remedies. In 1802 he heard of By o Hygienic Medication through " Laws of wed by Dr. Jackson at his home, Hygienic ..... le, New York. orreachings he was not long in convincing " For Jackson was teaching and practicing a ( , at least in harmony with nature and the In the spring of 1863 he became a wkson's cure. During a course of treat. of wy months he was restored to health. How good idea of what constituted a waar of the sk k. Out of this emi . . ... warming to health, sprang a deer to fusion. In the spring of 1844 h. with Prof. Trall, presidente

frew rutk Hyaropathic college. He was informed that Dr. Trall would hold a spring and summer term of his college at his Hygiean Home, Saint Anthony's Falls, Minnesota. Dr. Haldeman concluded to attend this term. At the end of the term he returned, and re-

mained at home several weeks, preparatory to attending the winter term in New York city.

In 1866 he hename a rendiente of the New York

west. turned 1.

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nephew, O. A. Gale, furnished the hotel enti and have ever since conducted the place as a he. sort. With the opening of the coming season of its name will be changed to Cedar Springs Hydro- 1 apeutic and Hygienic Institute, and will be conducted

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HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

DR. A. F. HALDEMAN.

In the person of Dr. Haldeman we have all the char- acteristics of a live American. His life has been one of action and progressive thought. There is nothing fogy in his make up; with him mere antiquity commands no reverence, and mere novelty conciliates no favor.

Allen Furgus Haldeman is a native of this county, and is the youngest of six children. He was born in 1843' and is thirty-seven years old. His father is Abraham Haldeman, a native of Virginia, and emigrated to this county with his father, John Haldeman in 1806. He is still living in the enjoyment of excellent health, and is in the eighty-first year of his age. In his prime of life he possessed a fine physical organization, with rare mental and social endowments. At the early age of nineteen he became a self-taught and practical surveyor. His mother is Elizabeth Haldeman, who emigrated to this county with her father, John Fisher, in 1813. She is still living in the enjoyment of good health, in the seventy-sixth year of her age. She possesses rare qualities of both heart and mind, and has filled well her mission in life.

Dr. Haldeman's early life was spent in acquiring an ed- ucation; but before he had fairly emerged from boy- hood he lost his health. He tried the merits of the Allopath, Homoeopath, and Eclectic without finding that health he sought, and receiving, as he believed, nothing but injury from the treatment of all the physicians whom he consulted, and being dissatisfied with their explanations of his malady, and their talk about the remedies proposed, he determined to investigate the subject for himself; he had, however, no idea of ever becoming a physician. His health was lost; if he did not regain it he would be useless to himself and to the world. He determined to sacrifice all to that primary consideration, and let the future take care of itself. Having no love for, or interest in, any system but the true one, he determined to satisfy himself, if possible, what was true. His observation and experience, however, were continually leading him from all faith in drug remedies. In 1862 he heard of Hydropathy or Hygienic Medication through "Laws of Life," published by Dr. Jackson at his home, Hygienic institute, Dansville, New York.

Through its teachings he was not long in convincing himself that Dr. Jackson was teaching and practicing a system that was at least in harmony with nature and the laws of vitality. In the spring of 1863 he became a patient at Dr. Jackson's cure. During a course of treat- ment of five or six months he was restored to health. He now had a pretty good idea of what constituted a philosophical treatment of the sick. Out of this embryotic insight of matters pertaining to health, sprang a desire to enter the medical profession. In the spring of 1865 he had a correspondence with Prof. Trall, president of the New York Hydropathic college. He was informed that Dr. Trall would hold a spring and summer term of his college at his Hygiean Home, Saint Anthony's Falls, Minnesota. Dr. Haldeman concluded to attend this term. At the end of the term he returned, and re-

mained at home several weeks, preparatory to attending the winter term in New York city.

In 1866 he became a graduate of the New York Hygeio-Therapeutic college. After his graduation he re- mained in New York several months, attending a course of scientific lectures on collateral sciences. In the fall of 1866 he returned to New York on purpose to accom- pany Prof. Trall to Europe, to prosecute his studies in that country.

After reaching New York, he found that Dr. Trall would be delayed several weeks on account of engrossing professional duties, and in consequence, his stay in Europe would be shortened. On this account Dr. Haldeman deferred going to Europe, and instead, spent the winter in New York. He attended hospital clinics at Bellevue, and at Blackwell's Island. His new and progressive medical ideas opened up new fields of thought, and he lost no time in making himself convers- ant with as wide a range of doctrines and scientific sub- jects as possible. It is but justice in behalf of the age of progress to say that Dr. Haldeman came out of New York as much of an anti-orthodox as he was anti-drug.

In the spring of 1867 he visited Boston and the New England States. While at Boston, he made the ac- quaintance of Dr. Dio Lewis, and with him visited his young ladies' physiological school at Lexington, Mass- achusetts. After a visit of several months in Boston, he returned to New York. In the spring of 1869 he went west. After spending several months in Chicago, re- turned.

In the fall of the same year he went to Philadelphia, to investigate a business proposition made him by Dr. Wil- son, of that city, wherein Dr. Haldeman would become a partner with him in his Hygienic institute. Dr. Trall, of New York, had also submitted a proposition to him to become a partner with him in his Hygeian Home.

After investigating the proposition of each, Dr. Halde- man concluded to establish an institution himself.

In the spring of 1870 he again went west, and invested largely in real estate. While he was in the west, he was one of a company who organized the Boston Mountain Mining and Smelting company with a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars. Dr. Haldeman was made president of this company, with headquarters at Chicago. During his business career in the west he was elected president of two other business corporations. In the spring of 1876 he went east to look at several health institutions, with a view of purchasing.

After remaining several months in Philadelphia, attend- ing the Centennial, he returned. In the spring of 1877 Dr. Haldeman was employed as physician at Cedar Springs. In August of the same year he purchased Mr. Marshall's entire interest. In the spring of 1878 he and his brother, Eli, became the owners of the entire property. Immediately after this purchase Dr. Haldeman and his nephew, O. A. Gale, furnished the hotel entirely new, and have ever since conducted the place as a health re- sort. With the opening of the coming season of 1881, its name will be changed to Cedar Springs Hydro-Ther- apeutic and Hygienic Institute, and will be conducted on

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HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

the medical philosophy as is understood and practiced by Dr. Haldeman. The doctor has furnished the follow- ing, as embracing his viewing as to the rationale of the new medical philosophy which, he believes, constitutes a "True Healing Art,"-one that is successful and satis- factory when applied to practice.

THE RATIONALE OF THE NATURE OF DISEASE.

Disease is an action of the living system, and occurs only in liv- ing organisms. Its nature is determined by its symptoms, and by the causes that produce it. Two things are necessary for its existence; first, vitality in the organism, and second, a morbifie cause introduced therein, or an agent brought in contact with the vital principle that pro- duces obstruction in its operations. Disease is then the action which follows as a result of this contact, in which the vital instincts of the organism strive to rid themselves of the offending substance. Disease, then, is vital war, an effort of the living system to preserve itself, to defend its autonomy. In this instance war is right and should continue as long as the morbific causes are upon the patient. Disease, then, is a necessary vital process, and should not be cured until the removal of its cause. The vitality of the organism is the motive or operating cause and the morbific agent, the obstructing cause. To remove the motive or operating cause, nothing is more certain than the administra- tion of violent poisons, and this explains why physicians of the drug schools consider them their best remedies, on the supposition that dis- case is a thing that must be killed, hence employ them for that pur- pose, often to the destruction of the patient's life. If they were cog- nizant of the fact that disease itself represents the life powers of the patient in remedial effort, and that, in killing out the disease, they were but killing out the vital power of their patient, they would see how utterly unphilosophie the practice of employing poisons in the treatment of disease. Disease, then, is not a thing to be destroyed, but an action to be regulated, a process to be directed, not allowing the action to terminate in congestion in any part or organ in the body. The body brought to a high degree of temperature, either by violent exercise or by disease, is just as subject to the great law of radiation as any other heated object, and to obtain the necessary radiation we have only to supply the conditions in accordance with this great law. The normal temperature of the body is ninety-eight Fahrenheit. A few degrees above indicate consuming fever; a few below, a depressed condition that tends to collapse and death. In health, if the heat of the body tends to increase beyond the standard of normality, the body at once covers itself with water (perspiration), thus the evaporation carries off the dangerous excess. In fevers and congestions, however, there is such a sudden increase of heat as a consequence of extreme labor, or the introduction of a poison into the circulation, that the perspiratory glands become obstructed and perspiration does not take place; then the science of Hydropathy clearly indicates the remedy. The dry and hot surface of the body must be supplied with the conditions of mois- ture, according to the great law of radiation. Thus we see our reme- dies are indicated by the preservative tendencies of nature.

THE RATIONALE OF THE MODUS OPERANDI OF DRUGS AND POISONS.

It is claimed by the advocates of drug medication that when a drug is introduced into the system that it acts by a special elective or selective chemical affinity, which the different drugs inherently possess for the various organs, parts and structures of the system. The rationale of this apparent action is reduced to the following propositions:

First, a drug is an inorganic substance, and does not possess any power of action, except the power to act chemically.

Second, a drug, when introduced into an organism, does not act but is acted upon.

The rationale: The vital instincts recognize the substance to be in- imical to their normal functions, and an intruder into their sacred dom- icile; hence it cannot remain; they cannot use it by any process known to the sustenance of life. Hence they set up a process to expel it. If the drug is classed as an emetic it devolves upon the stomach to expel it; if classified as a cathartic, the duty is assigned to the bowels; if a diueretic, the kidneys become the best vehicle to carry it out, and so on by like process to the end of the three thousand known drugs.

The vital instincts, in relation to the duties they have to perform, have an intelligent guidance, as it were, the same as a man would have who had a difficult piece of work to perform; if intelligent he would do the work the easiest way, and with the least wear on his vital energies, considering the material he had to use. Just so with the vital instincts of the organism in relation to the expulsion of non-usable substan-

ces. They take in, as it were, the nature of the situation, and the nature of the substance they have to deal with-the composition of its component elements, its density, or its fluidity; then whatever enuncia- tory is best adapted to the removal of the substance with the least wear to organic structures, to that organ or organs is the duty assigned. The work often necessitates extreme and violent action on the part of the organ or organs whose duty it devolves. This undue action is disease-a veritable drug disease. This explains why professors of the drug schools say, "We but cure one disease by producing another;" or why Professor Paine, of the New York university says, "Remedial agents," meaning drugs, "are essentially morbific in their action. They operate in the same manner as do the remote causes of disease." The action which follows, on the part of the living system, when a poison is introduced, is intense in ratio to the poisonous qualities of the drug. This explains why mild poisons only affect the patient slightly, while violent ones depress vitality rapidly. The action devolved upon the system where a violent poison is administered, becomes so great that the vital powers soon exhaust themselves and fall paralyzed, as it were, and death is the result. This explains, perhaps, why the distinguished Marshall Hall declares "thousands are annually slaughtered in the quiet sick room."

This, then, is the rationale of the modus operandi of the so called drug medicines, which is so much written about and so little under- stood. Perhaps the advocates of the chemical theory are not quite satisfied with this solution of the problem. What is chemistry? Chemistry is the accretion and separation of the atoms of dead mat- ter. Chlorine and mercury will combine and form a new substance called calomel, and then the calomel may be decomposed and the chlo- rine and mercury reproduced. Nothing like this happens in the do- main of organic life. There is no chemistry in the living organism. Were any drug to act chemically upon any part or organ within the living system, it would combine with it, and that would certainly be the death of it. Dead things combine with dead things, and this is chem- istry. Living matter acts on dead matter, resists and expels poisons, and this is vitality. Chemistry then takes cognizance of the combina- tions and decompositions of dead, inorganic matter, while vital action is the transformation of usable matter into living forms. There are but two functions of vitality, one process transforms the elements of food into tissue, and throws off the waste matters; this is health- - physi- ology -vis conservatrix nature. The other process expels drugs, ex- trancous or foreign substances and repairs damages; this is disease -- pathology vis Medicatrix Nature. The living system acts only in two ways. It acts appropriate to the substance if useful, and to reject it if injurious. This, then, explains the grand demarkation between foods and poisons, as they are recognized by the vital instincts of the organ- ism. A nutritious agent creates and renews nerve cells and struct- ures, endowing them with the finest physiological sensibilities, while a poisonous agent disturbs the essential conditions of their growth and renewal, and paralyzes their normal sensibilities. Thus one destroys. what the other builds up. Hence it is just as reasonable to suppose that there is affinity between health and disease as to attribute affinity between a poison and any organ, part, or structure of the body.

With these truths we enter the most facinating field in nature to consid- er the conduct of agents within the elaboratory of life. Nowhere in na. ture has Deity evinced such evidence of divine and supernatural intell :- gence. It brings into play man's noblest and highest manifestation of intellect to perceive and make the distinction between these opposing forces. One agent producing construction, and the other destruction . one maintaining integrity of function, and the other debasing and de' stroying it. Out of this depot of life's dynamics the brain becomes the recognized sun of the physiological system, receiving and transmitting to the system a force that propels the mightiest and minutest process of physical life. In this citadel sits enshrined the im. mortal soul, whose sublime and sensitive train of transition is evolved. As the brain is the instrument of the mind through which it receives and transmits its vital force, then much depends upon the integrity of its structural health, and its normal action. Let it once become dis_ cased or paralyzed by the use of debasing poisons, and the mentality becomes deranged, and life loses its purpose.

Then for men to call poisons medicines is an outrage upon the name of science; a blight upon our civilization, and an obstacle in the path- way of progress.

RATIONALE OF MEDICINES.

A more correct knowledge of the nature of drugs shows they are not medicines at all ! Medicines are those things which in themselves does the patient good, and can never be used properly with any other idea.

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HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

Drugs are agents which produce disease, hence cannot be medicines. The idea that drugs are medicines found existence in the primary dogma that nature has provided in drugs remedies for disease. If dis- case is a result of a transgression of the vital laws, would nature so stultify herself as to to provide remedies to do away with the conse- quenced penalties? Nature has provided penalties to secure obedience to her laws; not remedies to do away with the consequence of disobedi- ence to them! Man has mistaken her teachings. Instead of nature providing drugs as remedies for disease, the truth is, every drug taken into the living system induces a new disease. Every drug has its own penalty. Every dose is an outrage on the vitality of the patient. There is no so called law of cure in the universe. There is a condition of cure, which, when filled, means to live in obedience to physiological law.

RATIONALE OF DRUG MEDICATION.

Drug medication is established upon the fundamental fallacy of doing evil that good may come. Health cannot come through the use of those means which destroy health. Poisons cannot sustain vitality, for the very term implies its destruction. It is a grand delusion to poison a person because he is sick. To drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, and eat opium are additional parts of the same delusion, and the one prac- tice is justified or condemned upon the same principles as is the other. Physicians prescribe drugs because the patient is made to feel better, because his eyes and ears tell him he is better. The drunkard drinks whiskey, smokes tobacco, and eats opium for the same reason, and with quite as great wisdom. Every process of stimulation known to man is a delusive process, either by whiskey or drugs. Whiskey makes the drunkard fecl better, and he repeats his dram from day to day until he fills a drunkard's grave. Tobacco sustains the nervous powers of the smoker, just as arsenic, strychnine, and opium sustains the nervous powers of its deluded victims. Hence we see that the practice of drug medication is a delusive practice, encouraging and buoying up the pa- tient, making him feel improved, while destruction and death follow close after him. When he dies his death is ascribed to a special act of Divine Providence for the protection of the doctors.

Then what is the rationale of this practice? It is to force into the organism that which is destructive to it. No difference what common sense has to say, that which destroys life must save it ; that which ex- hausts vitality must increase it ; that which is ordinarily deadly in its effects must be salvatory. Health, then, is sought to be obtained by the use of those means which destroy health ; invigoration is hoped for through exhaustion ; natural power sought to be developed by defying nature. Hence the plans are in their very terms empirical and con- trary to every law of the organism.

Drug medication is a clear case of deception of the senses, and its practice is predicated upon appearances.

Toillustrate: If the usual vigor of the patienti seems diminished, the physician becomes alarmed-the patient as well, and he administers a poison "to rouse the patient up, to sustain and support his vitality.' The vital powers act with electric energy to avoid death, thus he sees the wonderful magic of his remedy. The rationale of this is, that the organism was forced to yield up what little vigor it had left, in the contest against its enemy. So pleased is he (and the observers, too,) with this manifestation of vital vigor, and so intent is he upon appear- ances, that he repeats his dose from time to time, as long as the vital resources hold out. Finally the delusion ends in exhaustion and death. This explains why Professor Alonzo Clark, of the New York college of Physicians and Surgeons, said: "All of our curative agents are poi- sons, and as a consequence, every dose diminishes the patient's vitality.', Or why Dr. Garth, in his last illness, when he saw his fellow doctors consulting together at his bedside, raised his head from his pillow, and said, with a smile: "Dear gentlemen, let me die a natural death." Were the physician cognizant of the fact that the appearances he be- lieved were signs of recuperation and health were but the morbid manifestations of life in defence of his remedy, he would then see why this apparent sinking away of the vital energies was in harmony with the great and inexorable law of periodicity, and that the vital forces were only being saved and accumulated through rest, in order to recu- perate for another struggle. What would the intelligent community think of an over anxious mother who would prick and pinch her child to keep it awake and active, for fear it would die if its powers sank to rest. Yet physicians are prescribing alcohol on the same principle. Why is this? Because, they tell us, that as yet medical science is still in her infancy. And it is safe to predict that if they still continue to took for the solution of its problems in the same direction they have for the last two thousand years, it will always remain in its infancy.

Periodicity is another great law of nature, in which harmonizes with

Hygienic practice, because the patient is placed in the very best condi- tions to rest and recuperate naturally. When the patient is in the throes of the paroxysm, the remedial effort is assisted and regulated.

Periodicity is a law of nature which governs physiological processes, as well as pathological. No bodily function will bear continuous exertion without its periodic rest. Contraction must be followed by relaxation, or disintegration is the result. Even the heart, which carries on its unceasing action, has its period of rest between every beat. Digestion has its periodic stages. Periodicity then is a law of nature, all-pervad- ing and inexorable. If disease shows its manifestations more mark- edly at certain periods than others, it is in obedience to this great law. . In conclusion we will say, that if a man is not conversant with the true relation that a substance sustains to the living system, he is not a fit person to predicate an opinion as to the good or harm the agent em- ployed will do him. When a man says: "I want a quiet night; I will take a sleeping draught," that man speaks in parables. He should say, I will poison myself a little, just enough to make me unconsious, but not enough to kill. The state he produces is not sleep, but a condition of narcotism that counterfeits sleep. He is a wise man who meets the condition with rest, seeks the sunshine and fresh air, and makes some fresh investments for his nervous system. If he follows in the footsteps of his deluded neighbor, and takes an artificial stimulant, he will begin a career which, sooner or later, will place him among the incurables or bring him to an untimely end. Alcohol and all drugs that narcotize are dangerous in the highest degree, for they mask the malady without curing it. The remedy is to give up all habits which cannot be sustained and defended by reason and scientific argument.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 83

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559