The practice, therefore, of increasing the deposits in the physical system by the introduction of drugs (foreign substances) is in direct opposition to physiological law, and has no scientific foundation whatever. From the countless remedies of the pharmacopœia we can select substances that if administered to a healthy person will produce almost any known form of disease--thus: brandy, cayenne pepper and quinine, will induce inflammatory fever; scammony and ipecac will cause cholera morbus; nitre, calomel and opium, will provoke typhoid or typhus fever; digitalis will cause Asiatic, or spasmodic cholera; cod liver oil and sulphur promote scurvy, and all the cathartic family inevitably cause diarrhœa, the disease in each case being nothing more than the effort of Nature to get rid of these troublesome intruders. Drugs do not, as their advocates claim, select their special organ with a view of _acting upon it_, but are _acted upon_ by that particular organ for the purpose of ridding the system of the drug. It follows, therefore, as a perfectly legitimate and logical deduction, that, if the system of administering drugs is founded upon a wrong conception of their relation to the human organism, then any theoretical “law of cure” predicated upon drug action must necessarily be equally fallacious and untrustworthy. As stated before, the simple fact is, that there is no _law_ of cure, only a _condition_--and that condition--obedience, by which is meant a course of treatment in harmony with Nature. The older physicians grow the more they rely upon the _vis medicatrix naturae_, which is, after all, the _only_ remedial force, and one totally beyond their control. The physician can no more perform cures than the farmer can make his crops grow. In each case, all that can be done is to employ all the methods that cumulative wisdom can suggest to make the conditions as favorable as possible, and leave the rest to Mother Nature, who is not in the habit of making mistakes, and whose unerring methods would cure ninety per cent. of all diseased conditions, if her beneficent intentions were not frustrated by well meant, but nevertheless pernicious, drug interference. PART II. THE TRUE CAUSE OF DISEASE. At this point the reader will doubtless be tempted to exclaim: “Well, you have demonstrated to your own satisfaction that the medical profession entertains erroneous opinions as to the true nature of disease, and also that drugs are absolutely useless--nay, injurious--in such conditions: but is this all? Having destroyed our trust in drugs, what have you to offer in their stead?” To which perfectly natural query, I gladly reply, I have a system of treatment to propound, a system that has triumphantly stood the test of years, a system that must commend itself to every intelligent reader, because it is strictly in accordance with natural law.