In "syphilis" we deal with a whole series of physical conditions arising out of a multiplicity of causes. The word syphilis could be, with profit for everyone, dropped from our language and forgotten. For as defined and described by "medical science," no such disease exists. The medical theory of its propagation is a super-colossal delusion.

   I do not deny the reality of the hundreds of symptoms that are claimed to belong to the four "stages" of "syphilis," but I do deny that these symptoms have any relation to a disease called "syphilis". The "loathsome symptoms" of "late syphilis" are built by mercury, arsenic, potassium iodide, bismuth and fear. Mercury, arsenic and bismuth are cumulative — they resist elimination; they remain in the body and build the conditions diagnosed as "tertiary syphilis," Chronic drug poisoning is added to the delusion "syphilis."

   My own experience in the care of "first stage syphilis' has been the same as that described by Tilden, who says: "My experience in the treatment of the disease from the chancre stage to recovery in from six weeks to two months without aftermaths of any kind, during more than threescore years, ought to demand a little attention from right minded people." I have seen no secondary and tertiary stages develop in any cases during a period of over twenty years in practice, I have seen chancres heal completely in three to four weeks after coming under my care.

   In view, however, of the fact that it is claimed that when "syphilis" is once apparently cured it may reappear later, it will be asked how one is to know when he or she is well. If all the symptoms have disappeared (without being suppressed by drugs), and all discomforts eradicated, and the patient returned to good health, is he well or not? He is if it is any "other disease" from which he suffered. Is "syphilis" the one exception? Perish the idea! Because suppressed symptoms recur and because the drugs used to suppress then build the so-called third stage of "syphilis," we do not have to believe that symptoms that have spontaneously disappeared under natural methods will also recur. We do not have to accept all the fallacies that have been built up around this word "syphilis" during the past four hundred years.

   I have cared for a number of cases of so-called "secondary syphilis", some of them of two and three years standing. Without exception, these patients have gotten well in four to eight weeks under hygienic care. I have yet to see a case relapse. If they are not well of "syphilis," why not? Some of them have become parents and the children are as sound and well as anybody's children. The disappearance of the symptoms, in these cases, was spontaneous. They have not returned. The patients have remained sound and well over a period of years. I insist that they are well. For the sake of those who may still have faith in the Wassermann test, let me say that in a few of these cases this test was made (in one case 9 tests in two years), subsequent to the disappearance of symptoms, and the tests proved negative in each case. Nine negative tests in two years, without a single positive test should satisfy the most ardent supporter of the test and the prevailing views of the disease. I must insist that these recoveries are real and not merely apparent; that there has been no suppression of symptoms, there will be no recurrence.

   I cared for a "syphilitic" in 1935 whose health had been wrecked by worry, not alone over his condition, but by troubles with his family, who attempted to drive him to arsenic and bismuth, despite his unwillingness to be poisoned by this treatment. The man was under care for about ten weeks. He was restored to vigorous health, became a physical director and in two years after recovery, distinguished himself by his strength feats. He has not had a minute of illness since he was discharged. His skin is as clear as a child's, his eyes are bright and clear, he is as full of energy and ambition as a young animal and maintains this condition by hygienic living.

   Is he well? Will he later develop "late syphilis?" Who is there who will assert that he is not well? Who will predict that he will develop "late syphilis?" If this man is not well, how is health determined? How can we ever know when anybody is fully recovered from any disease?

   In 1928 a young man consulted me in New York. Shortly after a "date" with a young woman he developed a chancre on his penis. A Wassermann test gave a "plus four" reaction. When he consulted me there was the beginning of a generalized skin rash on parts of the body in addition to the chancre. Under hygienic care the symptoms rapidly disappeared and there had been no recurrence of symptoms when he last reported nearly two years later. In his last report the young man said he was enjoying the best health he had ever had in his life. A friend of his, the man who induced him to consult me, wrote about the same time that the man "looks better than" he "ever saw him look before."

   In 1926 a lady, age about 40, came to me after six years of treatment with mercury and 606. Her doctor had discovered a pimple on her thigh at child birth. A Wassermann test gave positive results, and the torture began. Six years of torture and failing health, and always a positive Wassermann were all she could stand. She was suffering so much from the treatment that she stated that if she could not find a less painful method of treatment she would commit suicide. The Wassermann reaction had not varied during the whole six years of torture. What wonder that she was discouraged as well as worn out with the suffering caused by treatment.

   A few weeks of hygienic care restored her to vigorous health. After only four weeks of care the Wassermann reaction was negative. No subsequent Wassermanns were ever made.

   This woman enjoyed excellent health for the next nine years, when, due to worries over economic distress, she developed marked nervous symptoms. Her family immediately thought of her "syphilis." She again placed herself under my care and in four weeks was returned to vigorous health in which condition she has remained up to the present writing.

   In 1927 a young woman, (age 29) came to me for treatment. She had been under treatment for "syphilis" for two years. She had never showed the slightest symptom, on her skin or elsewhere, of "syphilis." Her baby had been bom dead — a thing that may have been due to one of several causes. A Wassermann test was made and it registered four plus. The woman did not know how she could have contracted "the disease" and, as a test of her husband gave negative results, they tested her mother. The mother reacted positively and they told her she had inherited the disease from her mother. But the mother, also, gave no history of ever having had any symptoms that could be regarded as "syphilis". Despite this, mother and daughter were given treatment with mercury and 606. The daughter stood the torment (the injections of the drug amounting to this) as long as she could, and, as the reaction never changed, decided to "find relief through other channels or commit suicide."

   Six weeks under natural treatment and she was in excellent health and gave a negative Wassermann. Her health has continued good, whereas, the drugs were wrecking her body.

   Osler says: 'throughout the 16th century the symptoms were well described. The disease appears to have been of much greater severity, than at present." In view of the present propaganda we can only wonder why the more virulent form of "syphilis" that swept over Europe, like a prairie fire, in the sixteenth century did not wipe out the whole population, since they lacked both resistance and effective treatment. If it is as infectious as it is supposed to be, if it was as wide-spread as it is said to have been, if they possessed no effective remedy against it, if it is as deadly as we are told it .is, you and I, dear reader, should not be here today.

   The Practical Medicine Series, 1924, tells us that investigations by a noted authority on venereal diseases showed that "there is a spontaneous tendency to Wassermann negativity (cure, in their language) in untreated syphilis, with the lapse of time in human beings and that this tendency amounts to 30 percent in the work of an ordinary diagnostic practice." Parran says "In my acquaintance are a half dozen hale and hearty old men and several women who have a history of acute infection from 20 to 40 years ago. Some of them were untreated. None of them received adequate treatment by modern standards. Yet these fortunate folks seem to have achieved a constitutional immunity *** in the cure or arrest of syphilis, as of other diseases, the resistance of the body is an important factor." He writes of a "lucky minority who achieve spontaneous cure or permanent latency." He admits that many "do learn to live with their disease and gain a constitutional immunity to it."

   Hygeia, official propaganda organ of the American Medical Association, for Dec. 1937 (p. 1135) in answer to the question: "Kindly give an opinion of the statement that 25 percent of the individuals with untreated syphilis undergo spontaneous 'cure'. Is this a valid statement?"; says: "while it is true that there are a certain number of cases of spontaneous cure with untreated cases, the number does not compare with the percentage of patients that are cured through therapy. *** It admits that "25 percent of the cases undergo a spontaneous cure" and asks "who is going to decide which cases will undergo spontaneous cure?"

   Hygeia insists that "syphilis is a public health problem" and that to take a chance on "spontaneous cure" in twenty-five percent of cases is to transmit the disease to innocent people, particularly wives and children, while the person who neglects treatment in the hope that he will recover spontaneously "may become insane or suffer from syphilis of the large blood vessels near the heart."

   Since it is everywhere admitted that medical methods of treatment are very unsatisfactory and that they are responsible for much injury, why has not some effort been made to determine the conditions upon which "spontaneous cure" depends, so that these may be supplied to all and thus produce a spontaneous cure in all cases.

   It is testified that the very drugs employed to treat "syphilis" impair the body's "immunity processes" and often make recovery impossible. Would it not be the part of wisdom to abandon these methods and turn to those measures that are known to enhance the body's defensive powers?

   The many changes that occur in the body of a woman during pregnancy are thought to enhance the body's defenses against spirochetes, so that pregnancy exerts a beneficial influence on the course of "syphilis." This benefit, it seems, is not supposed to extend to the child. The changes in a woman's body during pregnancy are nutritive changes. Why, not, then, look to improved nutrition as the ideal means of recovery? It is certainly well established, outside regular medical circles, that this works.

   Tilden says the "gummy tumors, when they really have an existence, can be overcome by correcting the patient's nutrition." Alsaker confirms this, saying, "sometimes the gumma is simply absorbed when metabolism becomes normal." The negro, who suffers more from malnutrition than do the whites, has "syphilis" that is "biologically different in him than in the white." The colored woman "remains infectious two and one-half times as long as the white woman." The "male negro is essentially susceptible to cardio-vascular disease."

   Becker testifies that "chronic alcoholism (habitual drunkenness) frequently favors relapses in early syphilis and increases the difficulty of obtaining cure. Excessive smoking tends to the formation of syphilitic mucous patches (infectious lesions) in the mouth, and also to leukoplakia, a precancerous lesion of the mucous membranes of the mouth caused in part by syphilis."

   Becker says "exposure of the entire body to sunlight also is an advantage. It has been found that this measure alone will result in improvement of clinical lesions of late syphilis." Sunlight is as much a nutritive factor as food itself.

   The Practical Medicine Series, 1924 says: "Viacuska reports two cases, one occurring in his own practice, in which patients, suffering from syphilis developed typhus fever. In both cases a positive Wassermann remained after vigorous therapy (which means, from their point of view, that the "vigorous therapy" failed to cure the patients), but after the typhus fever the blood showed a negative Wassermann reaction, and to all appearances there was a cure of the syphilis."

   The profound nutritive changes occurring in the body in fevers and the great destruction and elimination of toxins, result in the cure of many chronic diseases. Similar results are obtained, without acute disease, by the fast.

   It is our contention that the conditions of ill health attributed to "syphilis" are due to the thousand and one causes for disease that abound in the daily lives of the people and to the drugs that are employed in treating them, and that true cure comes only from correcting all known causes, including the treatment. This furnishes us with a rational basis upon which to proceed to restore our patients to sound health.

   Dr. Tilden says, "since giving up the use of drugs entirely, pronounced syphilitic symptoms disappeared and took their places among symptoms that naturally follow errors of life. Those masked with drug action soon cleared up and pointed to their origin." Again, he says: "Those physicians who look upon syphilis as one of the most dreadful diseases on earth have gained their experience by seeing and treating scrofulous — syphilitic — subjects of very low resistance. They have made the mistake of breaking down what resistance the patient had left by mercurialization, developing a scrofulo-syphilo-mercurial type that cannot be cured because of the physical degeneracy which existed before the syphilitic infection. The force of these statements will be better understood if through the mind's eye there may be contrasted the scrofulous subject, from the most resistant type too low to throw off disease, with a non-scrofulous subject, who, when in full health, cannot be infected.

   "The immune people — people who have no scrofula and who fail to take on disease, no matter how much exposed they are — resist infection from specific diseases until their habits of life lower their resistance; then they frequently become infected."

   Let us begin at the beginning: De Kruif tells us that not even Dr. Parran will claim that the best weapon to fight early "syphilis" has been found. Of course, de Kruif has reference to medical "weapons."

   Locally, cleanliness is all that is required. For this purpose, frequent washing with plain warm water is sufficient. Antiseptics are of no value, although they may do considerable harm.

   It is necessary to correct all enervating causes — all excesses, dissipations, poison habits, emotional stresses, etc. — and cleanse the body of toxins. Rest and fasting are the quickest means of eliminating toxins from the body.

   Fasting has long been employed in so-called "syphilis," and always with good results. The Arabian hospitals in Egypt, at the time of the French occupation, prescribed fasting in this condition. Avicena, the famous Arabian physician regarded it as a specific in "this disease." In the Orient, also, it has been used in so-called "syphilis" with excellent results. Fasting has reached its highest development in America during the past one hundred years and has been extensively employed in so-called "syphilis" with the highest results.

   Dr. Weger says, "our experiences in the dietetic and so-called eliminative treatment of this disease have been so interesting as to open up a wide field for speculation. The local lesions of the first-stage heal with startling rapidity. Pharyngeal, labial, and buccal ulcerations frequently disappear before the tenth day of fasting. Unfortunately it has been impossible to keep in touch with all these cases for any considerable time but several have reported no evidence and no sign of trouble at the end of two or three years. Those not reporting may have had later leutic developments, especially those whom we have every reason to suspect might return to their former loose habits of living and eating."

   So long as there is fever, malaise, or other "constitutional symptoms," or unhealed chancre, or skin eruption, etc., no food but water should be taken. Fasting is good not only in the so-called "primary stages," but in all "stages," and under proper supervision may be employed until all symptoms have cleared up. In discussing fasting in so-called "syphilitics," Dr. Weger says, "violent reactions are usually anticipated in drug saturated individuals." We rarely expect them in other cases; nonetheless the fast is best undertaken under the watchful care of one experienced in conducting fasts.

   The diet after the fast should be fruits and green vegetables at first; other foods may be added later. The diet is best prescribed by one who is fully versed in scientific or natural dietetics.

   To recover health, whether one is suffering merely from the so-called syphilitic infection or from drug and serum poisoning, as well, all enervating indulgences and practices must be abandoned. As long as enervation persists, elimination will be poor and neither the drug nor the infection will be readily thrown off. Enervation also deranges digestion and perverts nutrition and this, together with checked elimination, results in a blood and flesh condition which we call toxemia. The toxemic individual cannot throw off infection. Toxemia can only be prevented or overcome by overcoming enervation.

   All habits and influences, therefore, which use up nerve force in excess must be corrected and removed. Tobacco, alcohol, tea, coffee, chocolate, all drugs, etc., because these overstimulate and use up nerve force, must be abandoned.

   Overwork, hurry and rush must be abstained from. These consume nerve energy in excess and leave a deficiency with which to carry on the functions of life.

   Worry, fear, anxiety, grief, depression, hate, anger, jealousy, self-pity and similar destructive emotions are great annihilators of nerve force. This is one reason why it is a great crime for physicians to frighten people about "syphilis," cancer, tuberculosis, etc. These states of mind must be overcome. Cultivate, in their stead, poise, cheer, hope, courage, contentment and love. The destructive emotions derange secretion and excretion while these constructive emotions accelerate them. The first are paralyzing in their effects on the body — the latter are vivifying.

   In order to recuperate your dissipated nervous energies it is essential that you secure an abundance of rest and sleep. The inactivity of rest and not the excitement of stimulation is nature's great tonic. Rest and sleep is the great representative restorative process.

   Late hours must be abandoned. Retire early, the earlier the better. Arise later. Rest some during the day. Where this is possible, go to bed for an extended rest. The more rest and sleep you secure, the more rapidly will you recuperate and the sooner will the enervation be recovered from. This means that normal secretion and excretion will be reestablished, the blood and lymph will be purified and normalized and resistance to infection greatly increased.

   Sleep and live in well ventilated rooms. Fresh air day and night will improve your health and hasten your recovery. Foul or impure air will impair your health and retard recovery.

   Avoid all stimulation. Stimulation is opposed to rest. It prevents recuperation. It increases activity and thereby increases the expenditure of your energies. This is true of all forms of stimulation — drug, mechanical, electrical, thermal and mental. Hot and cold baths, because they are stimulating, are enervating. Massage, manual manipulations, Chiropractic "adjustments," electrical and mechanical treatments are all stimulating, hence enervating.

   Sensuality must be overcome. All sexual indulgence and all sexual excitement should be avoided. These consume nervous energy as few things do and build and perpetuate enervation in even the most vigorous and healthy.

   Keep yourself clean. Keep the sexual organs clean. Keep the sight of infection clean. When the papule opens, keep the ulcer clean, using for this purpose, plain warm water, use no antiseptics. These delay healing, injure and weaken the tissues, break down the normal resistance of the blood, and often result in serious trouble.

   As a means of reestablishing normal nutrition, promoting elimination and building up one's natural resistance to infection, few things can equal sunshine. A daily sun bath will hasten recovery in every instance. Those unaccustomed to the sun must begin carefully in exposing their bodies to its rays. The nude body should be exposed to the unfiltered rays of the sun.

   If there is nervous trouble or heart difficulty, or any other serious organic impairment, from whatever cause, or if asthma or tuberculosis are present, the sun-bathing should be taken under expert supervision.

   Exercise builds bodily vigor. It promotes nutrition, improves digestion and elimination and builds resistance to infection. A few minutes each day spent in exercise will hasten recovery. If there are no organic defects — heart disease, arterial defect, high blood pressure, tuberculosis, etc.— one may take his exercise himself; but if these exist, the exercise should be supervised by a skilled Hygienist.

   This plan of care, while it produces none of the evils of wholesale arsenical poisoning physicians now threaten us with, not only results in the speedy clearing up of symptoms and the return of vigorous health, but usually, also, in serologic negativity.

   Dr. Weger says: "A negative Wassermann reaction is the rule after fasting and dieting except in those individuals who return to former habits of venery, plus tobacco, coffee, alcohol, and stimulating food." He adds "Some of these cases (of second stage "syphilis") have had repeated blood tests made, both before and after treatment. In some a positive was regularly returned after repeated courses of intravenous medication and the usual supporting treatment. Some gave faintly plus or negative reactions to the test even with demonstrable lesions or symptoms still in evidence. In some few cases after a fast and after strict dietetic and living habits had been persisted in for months, a positive was still obtainable without any other evidence of disease whatsoever."

   Dr. Tilden says: "for years our treatment which is strictly dietetic and hygienic has brought all cases of Wassermann positive to Wassermann negative in from four to twelve weeks." Again he says: "I can feed any case giving a Wassermann positive for a week, and the first test made will come back negative, and if the patient will follow my instructions in the proper care of his body, his blood will remain negative."

   It has been my experience that a negative Wassermann does not always follow fasting and diet. In those cases where Wassermann tests have been made subsequent to recovery of good health, two have returned "plus four" Wassermanns.

   Here is the case of a German who received a "syphilitic infection" in the tropics twelve years before coming to me. The Wassermann had been persistently positive during this period. He placed himself under our care and had a fast of over thirty days. This was followed by a natural diet. He received daily sunbaths and exercise. It was a real joy to watch this man slowly creep back to good health — to see his signs and symptoms disappear, to see his eyes clear up and regain their youthful sparkle, his complexion become as clear as a child's and his pale cheeks become a ruddy pink, to see him gain weight and grow strong and vigorous and his enthusiasm daily increase.

   Health! The man had a degree of health one seldom sees even in the young! He had a Wassermann made. It was positive. He checked it in another laboratory. Again it was positive. He collapsed. That is, all his enthusiasm disappeared like a lightning's flash. Nobody knows what a Wassermann positive means, but he had been taught that it means "syphilis." For twelve years it had been drummed, into him by doctors in both Central America and the United States. This man's life had become a quest, not for health and vigor, but for a negative Wassermann. It was not enough to be well and strong, to be vigorous and full of renewed life. He wanted only a negative Wassermann. Nothing else mattered.

   Locomotor ataxia is said to be due to "syphilis" and to this alone. Some years ago Dr. Tilden wrote that he had treated many cases of locomotor ataxia that could give no reasonable history of "primary infection." The syphilomaniacs now freely admit this, but attempt to side-step its plain implication by saying that the infection may not produce a chancre or "primary stage," may, indeed, be so mild as to be unrecognized as such. They do not even trust the Wassermann reaction.

   In the summer of 1922 a young physician in Syracuse, New York, discussed with me a case of locomotor ataxia he had under treatment at that time. He said: "I have had three Wassermann tests made and they are all negative, but I am treating him for syphilis, anyway." He had been taught, in medical school, that this disease is due to "syphilis" and he had blindly accepted the words of his professors and text-book writers. He did not trust the blood test and treated his patient for syphilis in the face of three negative tests. This is the common practice in such cases.

   In 1926 a gentleman entered my office in New York City, suffering with locomotor ataxia. He had been suffering with this trouble for six years, he said, and, in spite of medical treatment (or was it because of it) had grown continuously worse. I asked him if he had been treated for "syphilis." When he replied that he had been so treated, I asked him for a history of "syphilis." To this he replied that neither he nor any member of his family had ever had the disease. Then I asked him about Wassermann tests. He stated that these had been made repeatedly, during the six years he has had the ataxia, and every test had been negative.

   Here was a man who gave no history of either acquired or congenital "syphilis" and who always supplied a negative Wassermann reaction, yet they had been treating him with mercury and salvarsan. They did not trust their vaunted test and completely ignored the history of the case. The medical theory is that locomotor ataxia is due to syphilis and they simply had to treat him for this disease, regardless.

   A little investigation of the past lives of every one of these sufferers will reveal enough of sensuality and gross living, to cause their troubles without dragging in an imaginary disease called "syphilis". These people have been living in a manner that weakens and debases their bodies. Years of gluttonous eating, late hours, excessive venery, drinking, tobacco using and other forms of sensuality and dissipation, eroticism in thought, and added to these, the drugs that are taken by such men and women for their aches and pains, are enough to produce in them any one or more of the mental and nervous and other diseases which are referred to as the third stage of a disease called "syphilis."

   This man gave a history of a past life of late hours, drink, sexual excesses, gross, gluttonous eating and other vices that are enough to account for the trouble he has without calling in the aid of imaginary diseases. But the reader should near in mind that so long as disease is due to germs the above causes and many more like them are not going to receive attention. Locomotor ataxia is due to "syphilis" and "syphilis" is due to a germ, so the scientific laboratory trained men give no attention to such insignificant things as those named above.

   It is said that the first symptoms of locomotor ataxia appear within one year after "infection," or delay until thirty. or forty years afterward. Like everything connected with ' syphilis," there is nothing regular, uniform or certain about its development.

   The early signs of locomotor ataxia are shooting pains in the lower half of the back, severe backaches, various urinary disturbances, and deficiencies of vision. As the disease progresses the subject gradually loses control of his muscles: his walk becomes a peculiar swaying, shambling, futile attempt to direct his feet. Later, he loses all ability to walk. It is considered fortunate that locomotor ataxia "usually brings death within a short time after it strikes."

   Dr. Tilden says that a cause for locomotor ataxia "need not be looked for beyond the daily lives of subjects. Everyone has abused himself sexually; indeed the history of such cases usually runs about as follows: 'I began at eight years of age to masturbate, and kept it up one to half a dozen times a day until I began visiting women, and have had intercourse once to four times every twenty-four hours for the past twenty-years.' Does such an individual require syphilis to paralyze him? Add to this abuse wrong eating, tobacco and often alcoholics, coffee and tea, then can any sane man believe that syphilis is necessary to add to all that crime against health, to make a successful ataxia?"

   A few years ago a comparatively young man consulted the author. He had the early symptoms of locomotor ataxia. While he gave no history of "syphilis", he did confess to gross frequency in masturbation from early youth to marriage and stated that, during his marriage (over three years) he had had intercourse once to three times a day, everyday without intermission. Since he was doing hard work and working unusually long hours, I doubted his statement about frequency of intercourse. I contacted his wife and upon questioning, she verified his statement.

   Dr. Alsaker says "the tendency of late years is to blame syphilis for more and more of the nervous disorders from which people suffer. Some medical men claim that this disease causes all cases of locomotor ataxia. It is true that many of the ataxias have had syphilis, but by no means all of them. Many of them have also had measles and corns. Locomotor ataxia has as varied a causation as other diseases have, and to blame one previous disorder is either mental laziness or perversion of the truth."

   Doctors who insist that locomotor ataxia is due to "syphilis" and not to anything else, should bear in mind that locomotor ataxia was known to the ancients who are not supposed to have suffered from "syphilis."

   In the winter of 1929-30 the writer was consulted by a wealthy middle-aged man who had what he said was "syphilis." He had a large, ugly chancre on his penis and informed me that a Wassermann test had been made which was four plus. He attributed his infection to intercourse with a loose woman during one of his periodic drinking sprees.

   I put him in bed and stopped all food, alcohol and tobacco. No drugs were given. He took nothing into his stomach but water. In three weeks I discharged the man as well. The chancre was completely healed.

   I have had reports from the above patient from the day he was discharged and have seen him personally more than once, the last time in the summer of 1937. During this period the man has enjoyed what he considers good health and has had no eruptions or other symptoms that could be called second or third stage "syphilis". No Wassermann tests have been made.

   A brief study of this man's living habits will reveal plenty of causes for any troubles he may and must develop in the future, without any reference to the infection he had nine years ago. To begin with the man is a gross eater. He is, in fact, a glutton, eating three big meals a day and eating between meals as well. His foods are highly seasoned and spiced and are made up of well-cooked conventional foods — white bread, denatured cereals, canned goods, sulphured fruits, pasteurized milk, embalmed meats, eggs, etc. — he drinks freely of strong coffee, consumes poisonous soda fountain drinks and does not consume much fresh fruit or green food. He smokes heavily; in fact, is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth. He drinks alcoholics habitually, going on "sprees" at intervals, and getting "dead-drunk." He is a sensualist and indulges in sex relations frequently. In addition to all this he works hard, putting in long hours, denying himself needed sleep, and driving himself with stimulants.

   This was his mode of living before he received his "infection." It has continued to be his mode of living. Since he laughs at all suggestions of reform, this is likely to be his mode of living until death puts an end to it. Such a mode of living will certainly result in some serious trouble in a few more years.

   Let us suppose that ten years from the date of this writing (nineteen years after the healing of the lesion) he develops heart trouble, paralysis, dementia, locomotor ataxia, nephritis, blindness, or some other trouble that is said to be late "syphilis," and that he goes to a "regular" physician with his trouble. The doctor will ignore his years of gluttony, his defective diet, his condiments, his many poison habits, sensuality and over work and, upon being told of the chancre nineteen years previously, will say the trouble is due to "syphilis." Every disease-producing factor in the man's whole life will be forgotten and a syphiliphobic mind will reach back nearly twenty years to an insignificant skin infection, that quickly healed and left no after effects, to account for the patient's troubles.

   In January of 1933 I cared for a young man for both "syphilis" and gonorrhea. In this case the gonorrhea had become chronic; the "syphilis" was manifest only by a positive serologic test. The chancre had completely healed four months before and there were no "secondary" symptoms. The Wassermann test had been persistently positive. To the medical world this means the man had "syphilis." The man did not have and has not had medical treatment.

   He was cared for by Natural or Hygienic methods for six weeks and was restored to excellent health which he has enjoyed to the present. Today (June 1, 1938), as I write these lines, this man visited me. He is in excellent health — strong, robust, vigorous, active. There has been no ill-health since he was dismissed in February, 1933.

   This man takes excellent care of himself. His eating is rational, he is addicted to no poison habits — tea, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, alcohol, etc. — is not a sensualist, gets daily exercise and avoids over indulgence. He will not develop paralysis, paresis, heart trouble, blindness, or arterial degeneration.

   Dr. Tilden says, "I know from sixty-five years of experience that *** locomotor ataxia is the result of excessive venery and is curable." Alcoholism, injury to the cord, vascular and nervous sclerosis from toxemia are undoubtedly causes. Perhaps the drugs given for "syphilis" are the most potent causes.

   The treatment for locomotor ataxia should have no reference to a disease called "syphilis." All causes of impaired health should be corrected and every health building measure employed. Tilden says, "when cases of locomotor ataxia apply to me for treatment, I treat the individuals for what their symptoms present. If they have any stimulating habits, these have to be given up at once. Their wrong eating habits are corrected immediately. When it is possible for them to go to bed, they are sent to bed, and kept there until the coordination has been restored." He tells us that he has treated many cases of locomotor ataxia with plus four Wassermanns, whose symptoms cleared up within sixty to ninety days, and adds, "where they have given up their bad habits and continued living in the right way, they have continued to remain well."

   Dr. Weger reports that "several tabetic cases advanced to the cane and crutch stage have been able to discard these aids to locomotion within a few months and have improved sufficiently to carry on extensive enterprises, play golf, and live normal lives for six or eight years, only to have the tabes reassert itself and become progressively worse. These cases were those of men past middle life whose habits were exemplary and who could be depended upon to do much better than the average person in carrying out instruction."

   I have had no such experiences and Dr. Weger is the only Hygienic practitioner who reports such recurrences. I incline to the opinion that the habits of these men were not as exemplary as they had led Dr. Weger to believe, and that they had not carried out instructions well. Unless we abandon all rational views of the trouble and accept the delusions that cluster around the spirochete, we must know that something in the lives of these patients caused the recurrences.

   Finally, let us briefly glance at paresis. This is a form of insanity with paralysis that we get but little opportunity to care for; first because our institutions are not designed to care for the insane; and second, because these cases are usually sent to asylums. I have had the privilege of caring for but two cases and these in the terminal stages when there was nothing to do except watch them die.

   Paresis, the "most horrible of all conditions resulting from syphilis," is said to develop in one out of every five cases of "untreated syphilis." One naturally wonders how these figures are obtained if the cases are untreated. "The disease centers its attack upon the cells of the brain," while the brain involvement is supposed to begin "at the very time of the first general invasion of the spirochetes."

   Dr. Tilden says "the mental derangements are brought on from venery and fear." He should have added, plus drug poisoning. There can be no doubt that paresis, like all other troubles, is the summation of multiple causes.

   Paresis "shows occasional, sometimes continual symptoms throughout all stages of its advancement." In its early stages there are usually "unmistakable signs of queerness." This goes on to "gradual mental break down." The victim's manners, customs, and habits are likely to strike off at odd tangents. He may become egotistical and develop a troublesome attitude towards others. Delusions of grandeur, with extravagance as a likely outstanding characteristic, may develop. Criminal tendencies may result in forgery, embezzlement, murder, revolting sex crimes, etc. Accompanying the odd mental quirks, and varying in intensity and variety in some cases, are severe, recurring headaches, dizziness, insomnia, memory lapses, nervousness and numerous types of convulsive seizures and paralysis.

   The symptoms described are not "specific". They are common in people in all walks of life who eat to excess of deficient and stimulating foods, imbibe alcoholics, tea, coffee, soda fountain slops, indulge in tobacco, practice excessive venery, who overwork, worry a lot, secure insufficient rest and exercise and who palliate their symptoms with drugs. I cannot see the need for a disease called "syphilis" to produce these symptoms and to finally produce degeneration of the brain. Hardening of the arteries of the brain from any cause may easily produce these symptoms. I know of no logical reason why the early stages of paresis will not yield as readily to Hygienic care as does ataxia.

Erratum: On page 46 we incorrectly "credit" Eric Wassermann with the discovery of the Wassermann test. "Credit" belongs to August von Wassermann, and to his two colleagues, Neisser and Bruck.