This, you remember, was what contemporary scientists told Galen and Harvey, and also what the astronomers told Galileo. We spoke in a similar strain of radio activity, the fourth dimension, wireless telegraphy, and aerial navigation. Many erudite members of the medical profession claim that zone therapy and zone analgesia might be interesting if found in Gulliver’s Travels or Munchausen’s Romances, but that emphatically they have no place in medical literature. For every one knows that an egg cannot be made to stand on end. Yet we are standing this medical egg on end every day. And there is no reason in the world why any intelligent man or woman, let alone any intelligent doctor, cannot do likewise, and put these simple and helpful methods into practical application. For it doesn’t even require faith. CHAPTER X. SCRATCHING THE HAND FOR SICK STOMACH. Many of us know that if we are threatened with sneezing and we press the upper lip tightly against the teeth with the fingers, that we can usually stop the sneeze. Also, that if we drop a cold piece of metal down the back, or press a piece of ice against the back of the neck, it will frequently check nosebleed. But not many of us know that the reason these things are thus is because, by these actions, we are stimulating normal function in the first zone. Were we to press our cheek over the wisdom tooth--which is in the fourth zone--or, rub the ice on our third zone ear, the sneeze and the nose bleed would pursue uninterruptedly the even tenor of their ways. If you never had heard of these things, you would probably say “pish,” and look around with some trepidation for your informant’s keeper. Yet, in all earnestness and sincerity, I would, if you are one of those whose stomach is easily upset, urge that the next time you board a train or boat you arm yourself with a wire hair brush and a metal comb. When the first faint qualms, premonitory of an eruption or some other seismic disturbance in your interior are felt, get busy with the comb and brush--not on your head--but on your hands. For sickness of the stomach is quite generally relieved by steady pressure made over the first and second zone on the backs of the hands with the teeth of a metal comb. The comb should be pressed firmly over the areas running from the thumb and first finger of both hands, including the web between the thumb and first finger--which seems to have a very intimate connection with the stomach. If there is no comb handy, the finger nails will do good substitute work, but the metal is best, as it seems to stimulate an electrical contact that helps the “impulse.” This procedure is to be used only where the stomach is irritated and threatens convulsive contractures, or where there is pain, or distention from gas. Relief of these conditions may generally be expected in from five to ten minutes.