Philosophy of Osteopathy Part 13
If the brain be that division in which force is generated or stored, you must at all hazards acquaint yourself with that structure of this machine; trace the connection from brain to heart, from heart to lungs, and other organs that can be acted upon by the brain, whose duty may be to construct the fleshy and bony parts of the body. Trace from the brain to the chemical laboratories, and note their action as they unite and prepare blood and other fluids, that are used in the economy of this vital, self-constructing and self-moving wonder, commonly known as man; wherein life and matter do unite, and express their friendly relation one with the other; and while this relation exists we have the living man only, expressing and proving the relation that can exist between life and matter, from the lowest living atom, to the greatest worlds.
They can only express form and action by this law. Harmony only dwells where obstructions do not exist.
DUTY OF THE OSTEOPATH.
The Osteopath finds here the field in which he can dwell forever. His duties as a philosopher admonish him, that life and matter can be united, and that union cannot continue with any hindrance to the free and absolute motion. Therefore his duty is to keep away from the track all that will hinder the complete pa.s.sage of the forces of the nervous system, that by that power the blood may be delivered and adjusted, to keep the system in normal condition. Here is your duty; do it well, if you wish to succeed.
FORMATION OF SACRUM.
We believe only when we do not know. Belief and doubt are equal terms.
If we believe the sacrum is formed by a local system, then we can or will have cause to believe that the r.e.c.t.u.m and colon appear after the outer skin is in process of forming. For want of the truths we are left in speculative doubt. I believe the lower bowels are formed by local machinery that receives and appropriates to the purpose of construction of such parts or organs as nature designs to be used there. If we dissect a chicken as soon as hatched we will find the colon beginning at r.e.c.t.u.m and complete in form, but not connected to the small intestines.
THE PELVIS.
To get more directly at the point I want to make I will say I have some reasons to believe that the lower bowels are builded from r.e.c.t.u.m to the vermiform appendix, by acts of pelvis. It may be well to state that I have seen formation of r.e.c.t.u.m and colon in the chicken, before the small intestines were visible at all. Then in same chicken I saw, liver, lung, crop and gizzard, and only one artery in the region of the small intestines. From this I was led to believe that the pelvis did much of the forming of the viscera. If so, then we could look for much relief through the system of the pelvis.
APPEARANCE OF OEDEMA.
OEdema is the one word that appears to be at the first showing of life and death in animal forms. Previous to death by general swelling of system, a watery swelling of fascia and lymphatics, even to those of nerve fibers. If a disease should destroy life by withholding all fluids, we can trace such cause in the beginning to a time when there was watery swelling of the centers of nerves of nutrition, to such amount as to cut off nerve supply until sensation ceased to renovate and keep off acc.u.mulating fluids so long that fermentation did the work of heating till all fluids had dried up, and the channels of supply closed by adhesive inflammation, and death follows by the law of general atrophy.
DO ALL DISEASES HAVE BEGINNING IN OEDEMA?
To a.s.sert that all diseases have their beginning in oedema may be wide in range, but we often find one principle to rule over much territory.
"Instance:" Mind is the supreme ruler of all beings, from the mites of life to the monsters of the land and sea. Thus we see a ruling principle is without limit. The same of numbers. By heat all metals melt to fluidity; acids must have oxygen to begin as solvents in most metals. We only speak imperfectly of some common laws to prepare the student to think on the line of probabilities as I hold them out for consideration.
Suppose we begin at the atoms of fluids such as enter to construct animal or vegetable forms, and pen up till decomposition begins. By such delay does not nature call a halt and refuse to obey the laws of construction and let all other supplies pile up even to death? Is not all this the result of oedema? OEdema surely begins with the first tardy atom of matter.
Pneumonia begins by its oedematous acc.u.mulations of dead atoms, even to the death of the whole body, all having found a start in atoms only.
QUESTIONS FOR THE OSTEOPATH.
We will close this chapter by propounding a few questions which the Osteopath should keep in mind.
Are the human and animal forms complete as working machines?
Has nature furnished man with powers to make his bones; give them the needed shapes of durable material, strong in kind?
Does a section in nature's law provide fastenings to hold these to one another?
Then another question arises: How will this body move, and where and how is the force applied?
Where and how is this force obtained?
How is it generated and supplied to these parts of motion?
What makes these muscles, ligaments, nerves, veins, arteries?
Are they self-forming, or has nature prepared machinery to make them?
Does animal life contain knowledge and force to construct all of the parts of man?
Can it run the machine after it has finished it?
By what power does it move?
Is there a blood vessel running to all parts of this body to supply all these demands?
If it has a battery of force, where is it?
What does it use for force?
Is it electricity? If so how does it collect and use this substance?
How does it convey its powers to any or all places?
How does the man keep warm without fire?
How does he build and lose flesh all the time?
Where and how is the supply made and delivered to proper places?
How is it applied and what holds it to its place when adjusted?
What makes it build the house of life?
Do demand and supply govern the work? If not, what does?
Are the laws of animal life sufficient to do all this work of building and repairing wastes and keep it in running condition?
If it does, what can man do or suggest to help it?
Is this machine capable of being run fast or slow if need be?
Does man have in him some kind of chemical laboratory that can turn out such products as he needs to fill all his physical demands?
If by heat, exercise, or any other cause he gets warm, can that chemistry cool him to normal?
If too cold can it warm him? Can it adjust him to heat and cold?
If so, how is it done? Is the law of life and longevity fully vindicated in man's make up?