Increase of Disease by Isadore L. Green

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 21, 1911

Increase of Disease

By Isadore L. Green

ISADORE L. GREEN, M. D.

The principles of temperance have an important place in the work of salvation; and those to whom is given the responsibility of finishing this work preparatory for the second coming of Christ, may certainly expect special light and guidance commensurate with the importance of an age notable for all gross forms of intemperance. See Matt. 24: 37-39.

Doubtless the question arises in the minds of many, If the end of all things is at hand, why the necessity for a call to reform in eating, drinking, dressing, exercising, resting, and in sanitation, etc.? If the people of God are so soon to change habitations for those wholly pure, and the effects of sin are to be effaced in a moment, why not center all our efforts and energies upon soul-saving? This should certainly be done; it is just the issue before us, and the very reason why these reforms are essential and positively demanded.

It is soul-saving in an eminent degree, the preservation of spirit and soul and body entire. Soul-saving, or saving the soul, includes the cleansing, the purification of the body, or soul temple, so that it may be indeed a fit temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If we wish or expect the Spirit, God's representative on earth, to dwell in us, we must be cleansed from all the works of the flesh. Gal. 5: 19. This means that we are to separate ourselves from all those things that weaken and destroy vitality and relatively incapacitate and limit usefulness.

Years ago, when the attention of this people was called to the principles of temperance (self-control), vital statistics had reached so low a record that public conservators of health, becoming much concerned about the situation, began an effort to ferret out the causes. But God's leadings, which are always the advance guards led us to a knowledge of the true and only assignable cause; i. e., unhealthful, irritating diet; irregular eating and drinking; the use of stimulating drinks that irritate and enervate the nervous system, clog the liver, weaken the heart's action, and burden the kidneys. Tea and coffee, tobacco, and spirituous liquors tend to harden the blood-vessels, frequently causing what is known as arteriosclerosis. This condition of the arteries leads to rupture of vessels in the brain, or cerebral hemorrhage, and paralysis followed by impaired faculties or death. Overwork and neglect of proper rest and personal cleanliness weaken the bodily functions. The blessings of pure air, proper ventilation, intelligent use of water and simple measures in the treatment of disease, rather than dependence upon poisonous drugs are the natural, God-given means of preserving life and health. The problem of life and health is not settled, neither can it be except upon one basis and from one standard, the immutable law of God. This law can never be separated from mutual or social or physical laws without degeneration and demoralization following; as cause and effect bear relation to each other, so do morals and personal habits.

It is an indisputable fact that wherever civilization (?) has succeeded in establishing itself, with its many questionable practises, we are confronted by deplorable conditions; and the inquiries have become almost universal: What can be done to check the progress of disease, to stamp out infectious, malignant, and contagious disease? How may hereditary tendencies be overcome? What are the specific germs that are taking the lives of the useful as well as of the indigent and irresponsible?

Many are deluded into thinking that longevity is increasing, also that sickness is being markedly reduced, and mortality correspondingly decreased. While vital statistics are only approximately correct, they are a guide to conclusions, and teach us that what may be lessened one year may be increased the following year, as is true of the years 1909 and 1910.

The record of the year 1909 gave a phenomenally low death-rate, but that of 1910 shows an increased rate throughout the registration area, with the exception of New York City, which has the lowest death-rate in its history. Death from causes amenable to sanitary combat were diminished. Tuberculosis was lowered; but cancer, heart-disease, and appendicitis were raised. In the year 1910, 39,883 patients were given free treatments in hospitals that were receiving money from the state; and in the same time 1,154,586 persons were treated in public and private dispensaries. Adding the two, we see that 1,194,469 persons sought relief from some form of disease. This does not include the large number who were treated in their own homes, or in private institutions. These figures apply to New York City, with the exception of 33,187 persons, and they might be safely duplicated for Chicago, and possibly for Philadelphia.

Where is the trouble or discrepancy? People are led to these optimistic views chiefly because the appointments and facilities for caring for the sick have been greatly increased and are more complete in service. But think of the colossal sums that are being paid by the government and by private individuals for research work and for preventive measures for stamping out parasitical and germ diseases from both human beings and the lower animals. We have to admit that when the work began it was truly evolutionary, starting from the lower animals, and after much effort on the part of humanitarians, gradually extending to the higher order of life.

The fast multiplying laboratories richly endowed by Carnegie, Rockefeller, and others, in which exhaustive measures are being employed in tracing causes to their effects in diseased conditions, exist as refutations of the opinion that disease is being eradicated. Millions upon millions of dollars are given in endowments, legacies, and appropriations for erecting hospitals, sanitariums, and State institutions. Colonies for epileptics and lepers are formed; shacks and

pavilions are improvised for caring for tubercular patients; institutions with significant titles calling attention to exclusive and modern methods of treating acute and chronic maladies, malignant and infectious diseases, multiply each year. Institutions for the insane are crowded to their utmost capacities, and yet a large number of mentally unbalanced never are committed to their care.

It has not proved true that there is a survival of the fittest; but on the contrary, the lives of the congenitally feeble who are but omnibuses for carrying all the vices and inherited weaknesses of their ancestors, are lengthened; many live as dependents and pensioners upon the stronger. Previous to a better knowledge of practical hygiene and due regard for the care of the body, this class died early. But where are the centenarians? Very few live to grace the annals of history. It is true to a demonstration that a sickly, debilitated body has a correspondingly weak and enfeebled mind or character. The personal equation of a sound mind in a sound body can not be figured out on any other principle or basis of reasoning than a strict observance of the laws regulating all the functions of the body. These laws are exacting, and any infringement upon them meets with a summary penalty. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3:17.

God gave a perfect code for governing his people, regulating diet, personal habits, and sanitary surroundings. A disregard of these laws has resulted in disease, sickness, and death. Some of our best authorities are studying the relations of flesh eating to cancer and other diseases. The late Nicholas Senn, a man of great scholastic ability and recognized authority on medical subjects, made several trips around the world, and observed, in studying the habits of different nationalities, that cancer is almost or quite unknown to those who eat no flesh foods. Fish is being regarded with suspicion, particularly salmon and trout, as well as oysters. The two former are said to be largely infected with cancer. Appendicitis is receiving due attention. The following is a quotation from the British Medical Journal (London):— “A study of appendicitis has a markedly different incidence in various countries, and this may be largely a question of diet. Statistics show that where there is a large meat-eating population, appendicitis is a common disease; whereas in those countries where little meat is eaten, appendicitis is rare, if not almost unknown. There is no doubt, apart from improved diagnosis, that appendicitis has greatly increased in the British Isles in the last few decades. The greatest change in the diet of the people has undoubtedly been the marked increase in meat eating. With the amount of foreign meat and canned food, the poorer classes are now able to furnish themselves a fair quantity of meat of varying kinds, particularly mutton and beef. The fat of meat, more particularly that of mutton and beef, is characterized by the small amount of unsaturated fatty acid it contains.

“That the fat in the food determines the nature of the fat in the tissues is well known. From the clinical and chemical work done by the writer, it would seem that this factor determines the nature of the soaps (which are formed in the processes of digestion) to be found in the intestinal wall. When these soaps are calcium (lime), soaps of saturated fatty acids, there is usually some evidence of disease, either a mucous colonitis (disease of the large intestine) or an intestinal lithiasis (formation of calculi, or stones).

“In appendicitis with which these two conditions are associated there is the same occurrence of these soaps in the wall of the intestines. There is reason to suspect the fat in the foods with the occurrence of the disease.”

Vegetarians have been assured that meat eating and intestinal catarrh have been closely associated with appendicitis, if not the cause of this very rapidly increasing disease.

Animal fats were regarded as unfit food when God gave the people permission to eat flesh foods. He strictly forbade them to eat either fat or blood; the latter is the medium of carrying waste and effete products through the system to the sources of elimination, and the former is converted into irritating or toxic acids that cause disease conditions. Butter and vegetable oils are more easily emulsified, and are not so detrimental to health. God would safeguard his people and spare them from the misfortune and suffering of sickness, by warning them against the selfish gratification of appetite and abuses of their bodies.

Watertown, N. Y.