Starting the Treatment

In severe cases of illness, the success of the milk cure depends on the faithfulness with which the details are followed. Some of these details often seem unimportant to those who know little of the treatment, but, in any case, where a successful result has not been obtained, it has always been easy to point to faults of commission or omission.

It is true that many people have derived great benefit from a milk diet taken otherwise than as I advise, or only partially following my instruction, but I believe that the plan I give herein is one that is always successful, enabling the patient to take the proper amount of milk, and secure the desired results, without any danger.

Before commencing the milk diet, it is usually advisable, and often necessary, to take a fast, from ordinary foods.

For the ordinary case, where the digestion is more or less impaired, and particularly where the constipation is present, the fast should continue at least 36 hours, but the patient is allowed to eat ripe fresh and dried fruits (except bananas) in such quantities as may be eaten with a relish, and as much water may be taken as possible with comfort. Diabetics should fast for five days, not even eating fruit.

While I have started patients on milk only five or six hours after their last meal, sometimes I have regretted it and found that a day’s fast would have saved time. If there is a class of patients who can do without the fast, it is the thin, weak, anaemic people, such as consumptives, neurasthenics, etc., especially those whose bowels are in the habit of moving freely every day. Such patients take milk greedily they soak it up like a sponge, there is neither initial constipation nor nausea, and the rapid increase in circulation causes a quick elimination of the impurities in the blood and bowels.

On the other hand, those who are stout, plethoric, rheumatic, gouty, dropsical, constipated, or have had skin or blood disease, diabetes, headaches, coated tongue, prolapsed or dilated stomach, or any displaced organ, should take at least one day’s fast, and many people will be benefited, and gain time in the end, by extending the fast over several days.

Those who are not accustomed to fasting periods are usually agreeably surprised to find there is no particular inconvenience to this part of the program, and when the time comes to start in drinking milk, it goes down with a relish; the stomach makes no objection, and the bowels move naturally. Another important consideration is the fact that the organs of digestion are, so to speak, caught at low tide, at their minimum bulk and

activity, and building up rapidly in size and function, as they do not on the milk diet, while the mind and body are in a state of as complete rest as possible. There is a natural tendency to make good cells, good tissues, and healthy organs, and to overcome any abnormal habit or loss of natural function that may have been contracted by any organ.

During the fast it is not necessary to take rest, or refrain from the usual work or habits; in fact, I think most patients are benefited by active exercise the day before commencing the milk.

A few months ago, I received a letter from a young lady magazine writer, who had taken a course of milk diet, after a fifteen days’ fast. She wished me to tell her some way to prevent “decay of the teeth,” which on the milk diet. She claimed that cavities had formed in the teeth, not only in her own case, but also in the cases of a well-known author, and his family, who had all taken the milk diet, after excessively long fasts.

I was glad to be able to inform the lady that whatever deterioration of the teeth she had experienced, was entirely due to the fasting period, and not in the slightest degree to a milk diet. Some of her friends had fasted several weeks, until they were extremely emaciated, and, I believe, they had taken the milk rather irregularly, and usually started on only three or four quarts per day.

In all my experience, I never knew of anyone suffering the slightest damage to their teeth, during, or soon after, taking a milk diet. In my case, my teeth were in bad shape before I took the treatment, and I had had a great deal of dental work done, but for twenty years afterward no dentist saw the inside of my mouth, as it was unnecessary.

Several experienced dentists who have taken the milk cure fully agree with me in the belief that it is a great benefit to the teeth, either in young or old people, and that it can cure Riggs disease, or pyorrhea.

Milk has all the elements necessary to build teeth with, and in fact, it is on an exclusive milk diet that babies grow teeth more rapidly, and more perfectly, than they ever do afterward, on any diet.

Speaking of these long fasts—two, three and even four or five weeks long—I must say that I never saw any case that showed permanent benefit from them, and I certainly have seen a number of people who had hopelessly wrecked their health and even their minds by this unnatural starvation. Indeed, the mental condition of some of these patients who came from “fasting sanitariums,” was pitifully weak. Perhaps this condition was present before they fasted, and possibly it was, owning to this fact, that they were induced to continue the fast so long.

I think I never ordered a longer fast than five days, but several years ago a young many insisted on taking a two-week fast, under my supervision. It was interesting and instructive to me, as I have been unable to find out from any book, or publication, recommending long fasts, just what happens to the functions of the faster.

This man remained in bed about two-thirds of the time, and at other times was taking rather long walks, about five miles daily. He took some light exercise several times daily, sat in the sun, read, etc.

He had no serious disorder, was well-muscled and nourished, but had a tendency toward constipation, and some lack of vigour not uncommon in men past 30.

About the third day of his fast, he was rather irritable and nervous and felt uncomfortable, but not hungry. After that he seemed fairly contented, except on the days when his bowels did not move, and on these days, or rather the next morning, his temperature and blood pressure would show a considerable drop, while the pulse was usually higher at the same time. He had difficulty in keeping warm, although the weather was mild.

I could not see that anything was gained by the fast beyond the fifth day, although he responded quite well to the milk diet that he took following the fast.

During his fast he had a daily warm water bath, drank warm or hot water, and slept outdoors, with hot water bottles to make him comfortable.

On the tenth day he took the juice of one orange; on the eleventh day the juice of five oranges, and the next day took two-and-a-half quarts of full milk.

Enemas were used several times to move the bowels, until he started on the milk, when the bowels began to move almost too freely.

His vital functions showed the following reactions:

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In beginning the milk diet, take the weight in the morning, with as little clothing on as possible. Make a list of what you wear, and at the end of the week, wearing the same outfit, weigh at the same hour of the day. More exact results are secured by emptying the bladder each time before weighing.

Measurements can be taken of the limbs, hips, waist, neck, and especially the chest, both expanded and contracted, and comparisons made from time to time.

In regard to the amount of milk to be taken, I will make the following statement: The average adult, when consuming daily two or four quarts of milk containing 4 per cent of butter fat, and 9 per cent of other solids, will not lose flesh; with another quart or two he will gain weight, and with still further increase of a pint or two he will secure the necessary energy and stimulation to throw off disease.

There are several arbitrary rules as t the quantity necessary, such as taking an ounce-and-a-half of milk for each pound of the normal weight or the highest weight in health, or, taking in a quart of milk for every foot in height, but none of these will fit all cases. They are however, a useful guide, especially in estimating the amount to be given children, when the first rule can be safely followed.

The last 1,000 cases that I have had under observation have averaged about six quarts of milk daily, containing about 2 per cent of butterfat, and 9 per cent of solids no fat. The males usually go over that amount and the average female patient will take slightly less.

Lord Bacon in his Aphorisms says, “Many persons declare that they cannot talk milk as a food, and the reason is that they do not take enough.” Dr. Stephen Smith of New York, In “Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette,” says his childhood experience at the farmhouse gave him a clue to the solution of Bacon’s unexplained maxim. Noticing that in making cheese the operator weighted first the milk, then the “rennet,” and recorded the result, he was led to inquire why so much accuracy, and was informed if there was too much “rennet” for the milk the curd would be so hard that it could not be pressed into a cheese, and that if there was too much milk for the “rennet” the curd would be so soft that it likewise could not be formed into shape.

A very soft curd is necessary for digestion, while a hard curd prevents the penetration of the digestive fluids. Hence it is easy to see why it is best to take plenty of milk with this treatment.

It is wrong, if not positively dangerous, to attempt the exclusive milk diet on any amount of milk less than that required to noticeably stimulate the circulation and promote body growth. A possible exception might be made in the case of convalescents from severe, acute fevers, where a few glasses of milk daily might keep them going temporarily until the ability to digest solid food was recovered. Even in those cases, water would be a safer drink, and probably would do as much good.

There is no halfway method of taking the milk diet for people who have much the matter with them. Enough milk must be taken to create new circulation, new cells, and new tissue growth, and cause prompt elimination of the waste and dead matter that may be poisoning the system.

A patient should start with the full amount of milk; cases that begin on a smaller quantity and try to work up to the proper amount often fail to get the best results. They get the stomach in the notion of taking three or four quarts, and then find it difficult to increase the amount, while those who start on, say, six quarts daily, have little or no trouble after the first day or two. In beginning in this way we take the stomach by surprise, and as the milk keeps coming, the stomach is compelled to dispose of it, and soon does so, in the natural way, without difficulty. It is rather common for patients to say, the afternoon of the first day, that they feel so full that they cannot take another glass, but as they continue taking the regular quantity, ways and means are provided, and the sensation disappears the same day or that night, and does not return.

On the contrary, if you humour the stomach, and stop when it desires you to, you will likely have to repeat the whole process the next day.

It must be remembered that stomachs of this kind are not normal, and have been out of condition so long that they are not competent judges of what is best for them.

When milk continues to come in and the stomach becomes over-distended, the lower outlet opens and allows some of the contents to pass into the intestine. This is desirable because milk can be perfectly digested in the intestine and the process stimulates and improves intestinal activity. Undoubtedly this action goes on in the case of suckling babe and assists in rapidly developing its dormant digestive functions.

If other food were taken with the milk this intestinal action would not take place satisfactorily, but with milk alone, digestion and assimilation may go on throughout practically the whole length of the alimentary canal. The addition of even a cracker to the milk seems to cause the stomach to hold all its contents for hours without discharging much into the intestine. Fruit does not have the same deterrent effect when eaten with milk, but it is not advisable to use fruit during the first few days of the start.

On the morning the milk diet is commenced, the patient remains in bed and takes the first drink as soon as the milk is available, but starting on the even hour, or half hour, and takes the same amount every half hour. The following day’s drinking begins as soon as the patient is awake in the morning, using the milk supplied the previous evening. The amount of milk taken in twenty-four hours is calculated from the time the first glass of the new day’s supply is taken, until the same time the next morning.

If six quarts is the daily amount, use a glass marked to contain six ounces; if seven quarts is the allowance, take seven ounces in a drink. If five-and-a-half quarts are taken, the glass should hold five-and-a-half ounces, and so on. Using these amounts there will be thirty-two drinks taken in twenty-four hours. If the first drink is taken at 6 a.m., and none are missed, by 8:30 p.m., thirty drinks will have been taken, two to be taken any time in the night when awake.

This is the only way that such an amount of milk can be absorbed by a weak stomach and it IS always absorbed, digested, or discharged, where the directions here given are followed.

It is necessary to be exact as to the time and quantity taken. Each glass should be sipped slowly, taking several minutes to finish it. The milk must be mixed with the secretions of the mouth. Do not gulp it, or let it run down the throat, as you might water. Now and then, I come across a patient who will take long draughts of milk, say two ounces at a pull, but drawn into the mouth in a rather small stream. They are young people with active salivary glands, and doubtless the action of sucking the milk through a small mouth opening at the same time draws saliva into the mouth. Such patients say the milk tastes better to them taken in that manner than it does taken in small swallows and “swished” around in the mouth by the tongue, but the latter is the safest way to start on. A straw, or glass tube, or drinking cup may be used.

Many patients sleep more than half the time. If asleep when drinking time comes, take your glass when you awaken, but do not try to make up for lost time. Continue thirty minutes apart. Milk is supposed to require about one-and-a-half hours digestion, and all dietetic plans before this have allowed at least that much time between meals. I use the half-hour interval because it gives the best results. Milk is probably curdled as soon as it arrives in the stomach; the sugar, albumen, salts and water begin to be absorbed immediately, other portions are passed on to the intestines, where the fat is quickly absorbed by the lacteals. The nitrogenous portions may not be taken up into the blood for twenty-four hours. So it is useless to set any particular time for the digestion of milk or other food. Doubtless a part of the milk will still be in the stomach at the end of thirty minutes, but its mixture with a fresh portion has no bad effect. On the contrary, it works well in practice.

A patient, in describing the effect, once said: “After fairly started, the first glasses seem to pull the others after them by suction.”

If an invalid’s stomach is very weak, or particularly deficient in the digestive juices, and especially if the milk is taken too rapidly, tough curds, which are slow and hard to digest, may be formed in the stomach at first. In the vomit of persons who were drinking quantities of milk too quickly, or at too low a temperature, I have seen these cheesy bodies so large and firm that it seemed impossible that they could have come up through the oesophagus. Where the conditions that I recommend as to rest, bathing, air and the small frequent and regular drinks of milk have been followed, I have never known of these curds being formed in such amounts as to prevent their digestion, with the exception of a few very weak people who were attempting to take their milk too cold.

It would be a sad mistake if we were to give up the idea of a milk diet because of a few curds in the stomach at first. It is also a mistake to peptonize the milk, or to add anything to it, to make it easier to digest. Let the fact be recognized that the fault is with the stomach and not with the milk. It is purely a functional fault and must be corrected, and, when the stomach is able to handle the milk right, it will also be able to digest ordinary foods as well.

There is seldom any difficulty in taking the milk after the first day or two if the start is made under proper conditions, and, after that, all that is necessary is to continue building up the digestive organs and the system generally by three or four weeks of this plan of treatment.

I usually start patients on milk which is near room temperature, or at least not below 60 degrees F., but if there are symptoms within the first two or three days of indigestion, distress in stomach, nausea, or vomiting of thick curds, the patient goes on warm milk immediately and does not take any cold milk for several days.

In cold weather, if any trouble of this kind is anticipated, it is better to start on warm milk at the beginning, but in most cases, especially in mild weather, it is unnecessary to warm the milk.

On cold nights, if drinking the cold milk prevents the patient getting to sleep again, provision should be made to warm the milk.

The most satisfactory way of warming the milk is to have a pan containing about three inches of warm, almost hot, water, and set each glass of milk in it for two or three minutes until it is warmed through. The milk ought to be about blood heat, although it can be heated in this way to 115 degrees without harming it, but the milk must not be left long in the water, and must be taken immediately. No more than one glass can be heated at a time. The most convenient way of keeping the pan of water hot is a small oil stove, kept burning continuously at such a heat as may be necessary. An electric plate can be used to heat the water. If the patient has not nurse the whole arrangement must be set near the bed so the patient can prepare the milk without getting up. Taking this warmed milk, according to the other directions, indigestible curds are never formed. Do not take a glass of cold milk early in the morning, as it effects might last all day.

It is not practicable to use thermos or vacuum bottles to keep warm milk in all night because the milk would spoil, but a bottle of hot water, or several of them, can be arranged for the night, and a glass of milk warmed at any time by emptying in the hot water into a small pan, and setting the glass in it. Never warm milk directly over gas or hot stove.

The secretions of the mouth may have no digestive action on milk as there is no starch in the latter, but the mechanical effect of the addition of the fluids is important. Outside of the milk cure, some weak stomachs can take milk diluted with water, and assimilate it, where straight milk disagrees. Infants are usually given milk largely diluted with water, but a healthy infant can generally take pure milk without trouble. In any case, the water should be gradually reduced and omitted as soon as possible. Skimmed milk is easier for a weak stomach to digest than full milk. Milk from which the cream has been extracted by a centrifugal separator just after milking, is better for dietetic purposes than ordinary skim milks (except for diabetics) and either is preferable to milk diluted with water.

The taking of at least one or two drinks during the night is a valuable assistance in getting down the necessary quantity of milk. Constipated people should never omit this. It is not necessary to give the stomach a rest while taking the milk cure. It does not need a rest on an exclusive milk diet and more than a baby’s stomach does. Other organs are resting, but the stomach is being built up to a state of maximum efficiency. It is very unwise to omit drinking the milk at a regular time because you don’t feel like taking it. If the stomach has been out of order for a long time, there may be a good many disagreeable symptoms, such as bad taste in the mouth, thick coat on the tongue, gas on the stomach, with considerable pain, nausea, and even vomiting, but none of these should prevent the patient from taking the regular drinks. The omission of a glass or two, instead of making one feel more comfortable, really has the opposite effect, because the constant, regular procession of milk through the alimentary canal is interfered with, and it begins to “come back,” when, if the milk was kept going down, it would carry the gas down with it into the intestines, where it belongs. The acidity of the stomach is also increased by interrupting the regular drinking. If, in a case of this kind, the milk is stopped for some hours, all disagreeable symptoms cease, and the patient will find he has a better stomach than he had before starting the treatment, but the cure has only been a partial one, and it may be even harder to get over the critical point next time.

It takes a long experience in this work to give one the necessary confidence to tell a patient to continue the treatment under these circumstances, but it is an absolute fact that I have never seen any harm

result from sticking to the diet (while resting), and the troubles are only the natural explosions due to the revolution going on in the stomach. If there is any better way to cure an old chronic case of indigestion, with a shriveled up, weakened and almost juiceless stomach, I have never discovered it.

If the patient is lacking in will power, and cannot, or will not take the regular amount of milk each time, it is a great deal better to take half a glass than none, and resume the full amount at the earliest possible opportunity.

Fortunately, there are very few people who have such a hard time on the milk diet, and they are most all elderly people who have been in ill health for many years. But even in this class of patients, less than two per cent have failed to carry on the treatment to a satisfactory result.

The patient must have a warm bath daily, and it is usually taken in the forenoon. When there is any tendency to insomnia the bath can be given in the evening, and usually has a good effect in overcoming that trouble. The first bath should last only fifteen or twenty minutes, increasing the time about fifteen minutes every day until the patient is staying in the water at least one hour. Use no soap in the bath.

These three items in regard to the temperature of the bath water must be remembered:

Start slightly below body temperature.

Increase to the body temperature.

Finish almost hot (but never hot enough to cause dizziness).

The bath should be prepared with a temperature of 94 or 95 F., and as soon as the bather becomes accustomed to this sudden change from the air temperature, he should gradually add hot water until he feels perfectly comfortable, neither hot nor cold. The thermometer will then indicate about 98 or 99, although people differ several degrees in their sensations. The temperature must be kept at this point until nearly ready to leave the bath; then hot water should be added to produce a thoroughly warm feeling throughout the body.

In very hot weather I have found it wise to reduce the temperature of the bath at the start a few degrees—to abstract heat from the body instead of adding it. The principle to be followed is to keep the patient entirely comfortable, and if, for any reason, he is not comfortable, he should get out of the bath.

Having the water too hot on entering will cause a slight attack of indigestion, in the same way that a hot bath affects one when taken too soon after a full meal, because the blood is drawn to the skin, and away from internal organs.

The bathroom must be ventilated in every way possible, and the milk taken at the regular time while bathing.

Ladies who object to wetting the hair can wear rubber bathing caps, but it is better to do without them. The circulation of the blood in the scalp is so much greater than usual that the warm skin dries the head rapidly and there is no discomfort where the hair does not have to be “put up” immediately. With very serious cases it is better to cut the hair to a convenient length; it grows rapidly and will be much stronger. In any case, the hair ceases to fall out, for it responds quickly to the general condition of the body.

Regarding bathing by females during the menstrual period, I will say that I hve never known of any harmful result from the practice, but if ladies prefer, the baths may be omitted for a few days at this time.

The following item in this connection is from the Nursing Times:

A cold bath or sea-bathing will sometimes cause the suppression of the menses, but this does not apply to the ordinary warm bath which so may women quite erroneously consider should not be taken during the progress of a menstrual period. There is not the slightest justification for depriving oneself of this source of comfort and cleanliness. It can do no possible harm. – Nursing Times.

One need not be afraid of putting the ears under water. If the eardrum is perforated the ear can be plugged temporarily with cotton. I have seen deafness unexpectedly cured by the combined diet and bathing while undergoing treatment for other diseases.

The proper way to take the bath is to have enough water to submerge all of the body except the face and lie at perfect ease with all muscles relaxed and the shoulders supported by the sloping head f the tub, or some contrivance such as a water bad, air cushion or canvas strap. Do not keep the head bent forward at an unnatural angle to keep it out of the water.

Breathe deeply, and occasionally sink the face under water, closing nostrils, if necessary, with the thumb and finger.

On finishing the bath do not use cold water or the shower bath, and if possible avoid draughts of cold air, not from any danger of “catching cold,” but to prevent the stimulation to the skin. I would not undertake to give the milk and rest cure without the aid of these baths.

On getting out of the tub, the patient should dry himself with a soft towel, without unnecessary rubbing or exercise, put on his bathrobe, and

return at once to bed. Weak patients may have the aid of a nurse in drying the skin and returning to their apartments.

I think the minimum time for a milk diet course should be four weeks. Three weeks should be devoted to the rest cure, and the remaining week will be sufficient to gradually get the patient up, and on solid food. In a considerable number of cases patients may continue using milk as a diet, if their circumstances permit, after resuming their occupations or ordinary habits. I have letter from different people who state that they have lived on milk for long periods, often several years, in one case twenty-one years, in another fifty years. All these persons began the use of milk for some serious ailment, and yet every one of them seems to be in a state of vigorous health and vitality now. The case of Dr. Herman Schwartz, an Australian physician, who has lived on milk exclusively for twenty-three years, is interesting, as from all accounts he is in the best of health and strength. He is said to take three gallons daily. One of the best public speakers on the Pacific Coast has lived wholly on milk for four years.

I have just received (1913) the following letter from Mr. W.F. Kitzele, of North Third Street, Burlington, Iowa: “I have lived on a strictly milk diet for the past forty-two years, not as a matter of choice, but from the fact that I am unable to take solid food of any kind, even a crumb of bread.

“At the age of two years, I took a dose of concentrated lye, which caused a stricture of the food pipe, and since then have lived on a milk diet, and I believe have gotten along better than the man who eats. I am five-feet-six-inches tall, weigh one-hundred-forty pounds, and am married and have four strong, healthy children. I take one quart at each mealtime and none between meals. My health is good; in fact, I have never been ill in bed in forty-two years.”

This case is so interesting and instructive that, in preparing the tenth edition of my book in 1921, I wrote to Mr. Kitzele, who occupies a responsible position in his city, and asked him for more particulars of his case. He has very kindly given me the following data: He is still living on an exclusive milk diet, and will do so for the balance of his life. It is now fifty years since he has tasted solid food of any kind, his only diet being one quart of milk, three times a day. He never took more than this amount; may have taken less when a child. He does not drink much water, not a gallon a year; never gets dry. In the fifty years, he has never been confined to bed by illness, and, physically, is as strong as any man doing office work. Mr. Kitzele is convinced that most of the ills of life are caused from eating improper food. (And I agree with him).

Regarding his bowels, he states that he has absolutely no trouble. They move twice each day as regular as the clock. At one time, Mr. K. was acquainted with a Mr. Castel, of Chicago, who was in the same condition, from the same cause, and also living exclusively on milk. I would like to hear from Mr. Castel.

The small amount of milk that Mr. Kitzele finds ample for his needs is surprising to me. As he began the diet when an infant, he accustomed himself to an amount that would, according to my experience, be inadequate for an adult.

Or, are adults using too much food?

If milk can be taken often enough one can endure more cold than on any other diet. I have lived in open air in winter with patients where we had to thaw the milk before we could use it. You can get more energy and heat out of a quart of milk than an Eskimo can out of a pound of blubber.

I can state here as a positive fact that an immense amount of physical or mental labor may be done on a milk diet. A young friend of mine lived on about five quarts of milk per day during two terms of college just before graduation, and won second honors in a class of over 300, and finished in fine physical condition. His board cost him about $10 per month.

Professor Weir Mitchell in “Fat and Blood,” page 125, says: “I have seen several times active men, even laboring men, live for long periods on milk, with no loss of weight; but large quantities have to be used—two-and-a-half to three gallons daily. A gentleman, a diabetic, was under my observation for 15 years, during the whole of which time he took no other food but milk, and carried on a large and prosperous business. Milk may, therefore, be safely asserted to be a sufficient food in itself, even for an adult, if only enough of it be taken.

The gifted writer, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, wrote me as follows in 1905: “I believe in the milk diet, becase I have taken it with results so marvelous, and so beneficial, that all Mr. Rockefeller’s money could not repay me, were I deprived of the knowledge that I gained by the experience. A man of my acquaintance who destroyed his digestion be years of wrong habits, has lived for the last five years in perfect health and strength on milk alone. He is able to work more hours with less fatigue, than any of his acquaintances. He possesses a marvelous complexion and is never ill.

“Another friend who has been a hopeless invalid for ten years, through complications of diseases, has lived on milk for three years, and finds herself perfectly well unless she attempts to return to solid foods. A dozen skilled physicians failed to give her even three days of health, until she gave up foods for milk. Seventeen other personal friends restored their

health, and the ability to digest a natural, varied diet, by taking the milk treatment for a few weeks.”

Where it is the intention of patients to keep on with the milk diet for very long after stopping the rest cure, it is advisable for them to take larger doses, at less frequent intervals. Some patients who had been a long time on a half-hour schedule, with a corresponding amount of milk, have said that they found it difficult to eat enough food at one time to last them until the next meal. There is usually no difficulty in taking twice the regular quantity of milk every hour instead of half as much every half hour. This gives more time between drinks for exercise, or business affairs, and I think tends to fit the stomach better for the distension of a regular meal, when ordinary diet is resumed.

Businessmen often carry a handbag full of pint Mason fruit jars, containing milk, and drink one of these at convenient times. Quite a number of former patients have been able to rink a quart of milk at one sitting.

But these experiments must not be tried until the stomach is taking the small and frequent doses without any discomfort, and the bowels are moving regularly. If the stomach is not handling easily the smaller drinks, it will be of no use to attempt the larger ones.

A course of four weeks should ordinarily be sufficient to cure any of the following diseases:

Nervous prostration, general debility, autointoxification, mild skin troubles, such as pimples, eczema, sallowness, wrinkles, etc., simple anemia, catarrh, biliousness, ringing in the ears, pleurisy, constipation, dyspepsia, indigestion, asthma, hay fever, piles, insomnia, ulcer of the stomach, colitis, or ulceration of the bowels, goiter, malaria, arterioscerosis (hard arteries), neuralgia, neurasthenia, acidity of the stomach, chronic appendicitis, arthritis, urticaria or hives, cystitis, carbuncles, diarrhoea or dysentery, dilation of stomach, gastritis, gout, impotence, neuritis, lumbago, sciatica, migraine, leucorrhea, enlargement of prostate gland, tobacco, morphine and cocaine habits, gallstones, and liver disorders, rheumatism, kidney disease, and the first stage of consumption.

In colitis, if the condition of stools does not indicate that the bowels are perfectly healed at the end of four weeks, the diet and rest should be continued longer, but the amount of milk taken may be decreased about one-third, and buttermilk may be substituted for some of the sweet milk, if it agrees.

In more advanced cases of consumption or other chronic organic diseases the diet can be continued as long as visible improvement is made, or until cured.

It may be well to say here that there are crises that come on in the course of the treatment, due to the revolution that is taking place in the body. None of them is an indication to stop the milk, quite the contrary. The most common formerly was an eruption on the skin of the face, body or limbs, usually coming out during the second or third week. I have seen large pimples and boils, but none that ever left a scar. Since I have been using the Holstein milk exclusively these eruptions do not occur except in patients who have previously been afflicted with them.

Rheumatic patients nearly always have some of the customary symptoms or pains in the parts affected, but usually only once.

I wish to speak particularly of crises occurring in special organs that are or have been the seat of disease. You may think there is a recurrence of the disease, but do not have the slightest fear. After the inflammation or excitement has subsided the part is always in a better condition and probably entirely healed for the first time.

Chapter V: Reactions During Treatment

Before taking up the consideration of the different diseases, I will here describe some of the reactions that take place on a full milk diet.

The great majority of cases of chronic disease, without fever, have defective circulation of the blood. The heart beats feebly or slowly, and there is actually too little blood in the arteries. The blood pressure is too low, perhaps 40 or 50 degrees below normal. The entire body is poorly nourished and unable to throw off the disease, which afflicts it.

In these patients we notice directly, in every case, a most remarkable change. Within two hours after commencing the diet, the action of the heart will be accelerated, and within twelve to twenty-four hours there will be a gain of over six beats to the minute. Within two or three days there will be an increase of about twelve beats to the minute; the pulse will be full and bounding; the skin flushed and moist; the capillary circulation under the fingernails, or wherever it may be examined, quick and active. The blood pressure will have raised ten to twenty degrees. All this takes place with the patient lying as quietly as possible, making no movement unless necessary—conditions under which normally on an ordinary diet, the circulation would be much slower than usual.

No one can deny the benefit of this condition in chronic disease. It is a result sought by every intelligent doctor, knowing that through the circulation only can chronic disease be cured. None of the usual methods of heart stimulation such as alcohol or other drugs, exercise, massage, hot and cold baths, inhalations of oxygen, solutions injected into the veins, or transfusion of blood can equal the results of the milk diet treatment in effect, in permanency, in total lack of danger. This natural, physiological increase of circulation results from the increased amount of blood, created in the natural way, by the stomach and intestines, acting on an easily assimilated food.

Physicians, investigating the milk cure, say that one of the most striking things about it is the quick return to a normal condition of the blood pressure, no matter whether it is too high, or too low.

The blood pressure is entirely independent of the pulse rate. A very high, or very low blood pressure may exist with either a slow or a rapid heart.

In anemia, consumption, auto-intoxification and wasting diseases generally, the pressure is below normal.

Persons subject to hardened arteries, apoplexy, Bright’s disease, asthma, bronchitis, etc., frequently have a very high blood pressure.

Pressure varies somewhat according to age, registering on the instrument designed for that purpose, less than 100 degrees in children, and gradually increasing until in the aged it may be over 150 without the health being seriously affected.

In examining the records of the patients for 1915, I was astonished myself to see how all of them with either a low or high pressure, tended to gravitate up or down, until they struck about the normal, which is probably around 130 for a middle-aged adult. In some of these cases, especially of low pressure, the normal amount was reached during their four-week term of treatment, but I think that all of these made further gains on resuming normal habits of activity and diet.

The records were taken about every seven days, the first or top one showing pressure on starting treatment, and the last one, the record on leaving. The table includes twenty of the unusual pressure cases under my care during the year.

These tables do not do full justice to the improvement made. All of these patient with extra pressure had been running higher than the starting figure indicates, as the first record was taken after a fast and a night’s rest, both of which would lower the pressure temporarily.

<<TABLE HERE>>

There is no dangerous strain on the heart, in this treatment, because the heart itself is the first organ to share in the benefits derived from the better blood circulating through it. There is no greater stimulant for the heart than milk; there is nothing that will build up the heart like milk, but in all cardiac disorders complete rest must be combined with the diet. Many patients with serious diseases of the heart, organic or functional, valvular or nervous disorders, have taken the milk diet and I have never heard of any but good results. The resting patient can stand a full milk diet and benefit from it, but if the milk drinker’s heart is compelled to furnish blood to exercising muscles or an active brain, it may be too great a strain on it, at first, and tend to prevent the recovery of dilated, fatty or otherwise diseased hearts.

In certain diseased conditions of the body there is an unusually fast pulse.

This is always to be expected in fever of any kind, but there are certain disorders, which are accompanied by a very rapid pulse, and yet the temperature remains normal. Exophthalmic goiter (Grave’s disease,

Baselow’s disease) is characterized by so rapid a pulse that it is termed cardiac palpitation, but on the milk diet, resting, the heart slows down gradually but surely, and permanently. The same result follows in patients with fever or toxic conditions of any kind which cause a rapid pulse.

So here again we see a return to the normal, although the condition is apparently the reverse of the slow heart.

It simply shows how a natural remedy will restore the system to health, no matter what the symptoms may be.

In taking the milk diet there is no danger to the kidneys, in spite of their greatly increased work, for invalids with badly diseased kidneys take the milk diet successfully. Some patients, it is true, have slight pains in the kidneys during the first days of their treatment. It is always temporary, and due, I think, to a rapid growth of the organs, so rapid that the sensitive covering of the kidneys is stretch tightly at first.

Several patients have taken the milk cure after losing one kidney by operation. All of these cases were successful in restoring their health.

About five years ago a physician’s wife was brought to me to be strengthened up for an operation on a tubercular kidney. A well-known specialist had made the diagnosis and it was supposed the only thing to do was to remove the kidney. She was on the milk and rest treatment not quite four weeks. On re-examination no trace of the disease was apparent. She has never had the operation, and continues in good health; in fact, has since given birth to a healthy baby.

The amount of urine is very much increased by this diet, and no matter what its previous condition, whether highly acid, or loaded with solids or salts in solution, it becomes bland, non-irritating, and almost as clear as water.

The frequency of urination is a little troublesome at first, but in a few days the bladder seems to be able to retain a larger quantity without discomfort; more fluid leaves the body in the perspiration, which is increased by the improved capillary circulation in the skin, and probably the lungs throw off more moisture. However, even then many patients will find it necessary to get up in the night once or twice. It is not advisable to hold the urine very long, as a portion of the water may be absorbed into the system.

It is really wonderful how the various parts of the body accommodate themselves to the great changes, which they undergo on the milk diet. It is only possible because the greatly increased blood supply brings with it all the necessary materials to make these changes and a plentiful supply of nourishment for every cell, of every tissue.

In ill health there is always one or both of two conditions of the blood, viz.:

Insufficient quantity

Abnormal quality

Disease is a result of a disturbance of the mechanism of nutrition. There may have been predisposing or exciting causes in the way of bacteria or heredity, bad food, air or habits, but as the abnormal condition becomes apparent to us, we see the evidence of some disturbance of the processes of nutrition.

There is a continuous battle going on between the forces that build up and the forces that pull down; between the cells that do good and those that do harm. Nature is always endeavoring to maintain a normal standard against any agent or condition that may attempt to alter it. And when temporarily or accidentally that standard may be departed from, we see immediately an attempt to repair the damage.

No matter what the abnormal condition may be, whether a cut or bruise of the skin, an ulcer in the lung, or the presence of some poison in the system, there is a continuous effort on the part of the natural forces, always acting through the circulation, to restore the normal condition, and we can assist that effort by supplying food that may be easily turned into good blood.

On the condition of the blood depends the outcome of the struggle, whether life or death, a short or long illness.

The circulation of the blood is nature’s agent in eliminating disease, and increasing the quantity and regulating the rapidity of the blood current while improving its quality will assist that elimination.

In a great many maladies, whether caused by errors of diet or not, the digestive or blood-making power is weakened, and to continue the usual food, or to take mixtures of meat, eggs, starchy materials and various drinks, including milk and alcoholic beverages, increases the burden on organs already overtaxed.

If, in addition to the mixed diet, the patient is given medicines for the relief of pain, or for the reduction of temperature, stimulants or sedatives for the heart, cathartics for the bowels or diuretics for the kidneys, expectorants and emetics, hypnotics and narcotics, etc., any one or more of them, the problem for the circulation to solve becomes indeed a complex one, for each and every medicine must act through the blood, whether given by the stomach or through the skin. Even such a simple hygienic measure as bathing, by bringing the blood to the skin and away from the internal organs,

interferes with digestion, if that process is not already completed, or of the most simple character.

The action of the heart, as I have said, is usually accelerated, soon after commencing the milk diet. There is no reaction from this condition. The effect continues with the diet, but after a varying time the heart may slow down a little because it has become strong enough to do the work with fewer pulsations.

The arteries continue full. The heart hypertrophies physiologically, just as a woman’s heart does in her first pregnancy. I have observed it many times.

In health every organ in the body is hyperemic, or congested with blood, when in active operation, and as the activity increases, so does the blood supply.

There can be no growth, or rebuilding, or regenerating of any portion of the body, without an amount of blood being present in excess of the ordinary tissue-nourishing quantity.

A condition of anaemia, or lack of blood, will never be found when the body is successfully overcoming disease.

We hear a great deal of hyperaemia as a curative agent, following the ideas of Prof. Bier, and using hot air apparatus to cause a local congestion of the diseased parts.

The use of such apparatus indicates that the natural circulation is defective and unable to push the necessary amount of blood into the part.

But in thus interfering with the circulation, how can we be sure that we are improving matters?

Do we know how to force just the proper amount of blood to a diseased part?

Where does the blood come from?

Is not the remainder of the body weakened, or left without protection?

Does not such apparatus bring the blood more to the surface and away from the deeper and perhaps diseased parts?

Why not increase the blood supply naturally all over the body? Why use an apparatus to cause a local congestion when there is a well-known function of the body to attend to just such things, if given the material to work with?

When we suffer an injury to any portion of the body, such as a bruise, a burn, a foreign body needing removal, or the presence of irritating bacteria, or their products, we do not have to wait for the application of any artificial apparatus. The congestion begins at once, through the vaso-motor system, ordered and controlled by the sensory and sympathetic systems of nerves.

There is never any mistake about it; the congestion appears promptly in exactly the right spot and no other.

Suppose harmful material has gained access to the circulation, be it chemical, bacterial, or simply a loading up with the natural poisons of the body which have failed to be eliminated. Fever results. Fever is only a name for general hyperaemia, and hyperaemia is absolutely necessary to throw off or neutralize the poison.

If there is enough health blood present in the circulation, or if it is manufactured as rapidly as may be required to carry off the poisons, the system is able to overcome the danger and restore the normal condition.

New and healthy blood is necessary to perform cures; old blood, stagnant blood, impure blood (from improper foods), no matter how much of it there may be, is ineffective.

In dropsical effusions there is always plenty of blood fluid, but of such a character that the hyperaemia set up to repel disease only makes the tissues water-logged. Place such a case on the milk diet, under proper conditions, and you will find that the dropsy is rapidly cured.

The heartbeats vary greatly in number in different persons. I have started several patients on the milk diet whose customary pulse rate was around forty per minute. One lady started with thirty-six, and before the end of the first week showed about seventy-five per minute, while resting in bed and exerting herself as little as possible. From being a chronic invalid, almost bedridden, weak, listless, almost bloodless, without appetite, she became a strong, well woman, and has never lapsed to her former condition.

In patients with fever and rapid pulse on the milk diet there is usually a slowing of the heart and nearly always a reduction of the temperature. The effect is chiefly caused by the larger blood current more easily removing the fever products, and by the cooling of the blood through dilation of the cutaneous blood vessels, and by increase of perspiration.

One young lady with goiter started with a pulse of 135 per minute, but it gradually reduced to 80 at the end of the fourth week.

It is very unusual for a patient to have a temperature above the normal while on milk and resting, no matter what the previous condition may have been. If the fever does not stay below 100 soon after the patient’s bowels are moving naturally, a serious condition is indicated.

The stimulation of a full milk diet is very similar to the primary effects of alcoholic stimulation on the circulation, but the after results are entirely different, due to the fact that the blood carries with it the food necessary to repair the increased tissue waste.

Stimulation by alcohol is followed by a period of depression, which is impossible with milk. Continuous stimulation by alcohol causes inco-ordination of muscles, which never follows that of milk. Indeed, the spasmodic, uncertain movements of the hand in writer’s cramp may be permanently cured by a proper milk diet.

The effect on the lungs is to quicken the breathing at first; then as the respiratory muscles strengthen, the inhalations become deeper. No matter what disease one may have, the breathing capacity is increased. The circumference of the chest enlarges and the measurement on inspiration increases week by week over that of expiration. The enlargement is too great to be accounted for by increase of muscular tissue or subcutaneous fat around the chest. In fact, the capacity of the lungs increases from 25 to 100 cubic inches by measurement with a spirometer.

These changes, remember, take place while the patient is resting. The muscles all over the body increase in size.

To one who has had no experience with this treatment, it seems incredible that the muscles should not only rapidly increase in size, but become much harder. Yet it is a positive fact that the voluntary muscles of the body become firm and solid, almost like an athlete’s limbs after a hard course of training. And this, too, while the patient is lying abed all the time, except when attending to the necessary calls of nature, or taking the daily bath. And that bath a warm one, usually considered weakening!

People are too apt to compare a patient taking the rest cure with one in the last stages of chronic disease, or bedridden from the weakness accompanying typhoid or other fevers.

As a matter of fact, the two conditions are entirely different. In the latter case, the patient is compelled to take to his bed because he is ill and weak and unable to take or assimilate nourishment, and the food that is given him does little or no good, and may be really harmful as he has no appetite and lacks the necessary secretions to properly digest food.

But the great majority of patients taking the milk cure are “walking case.” Indeed, many of them demur at the idea of going to bed at first. But go to bed they must to take the milk properly, and after the preliminary fast, they usually have all the necessary appetite and the right condition of the stomach to take milk easily, and taking the amount usually given, they are assimilating more nourishment than the ordinary person takes, even while doing hard work. But milk is, so far as I know, the only food that can be taken in full amount with benefit, while enjoying as perfect rest as may be possible.

The hardness of the muscles, on a milk diet, is due largely to the fact that they are pumped full of blood, like all the other organs of the body.

And, it is well to recall the fact that the internal organs themselves contain a great system of muscles. Not voluntary muscles, it is true, but muscles that are controlled by the wonderful sympathetic system of nerves; muscles which do their work without any effort or knowledge of the will; muscles that work while we sleep. Without them digestion would be impossible, for every movement of the stomach and intestines and the food products contained in them is due to these muscles.

The whole alimentary canal (oesophagus, stomach and intestines), contains in its wall a double layer of these involuntary muscle fibres, part of them circling around the organ, and the remainder distributed lengthwise, and through the combined efforts of the fibres, the contents of the canal are mixed with the various digestive juices, and gradually pushed onward until absorption has taken place, and the residue has been expelled.

This is what takes place in the healthy individual without any consciousness or assistance on his part. But in the invalid these small but important muscles are thin and weak and unable to do their duty. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the build up and resume their normal functions just as do the external muscles, while a person is on a full milk diet. Indeed, although we cannot see these internal muscles develop, we have plenty of evidence that they do, as for instance, the increased size of the abdomen, the larger capacity for food, the facility with which the unusual amount of fluid and solid matter is handled, and the much larger amount of faeces discharged.

This increased power of the intestinal muscles, and the restoration of the peristaltic movement, is all that is necessary, in many cases, to overcome constipation.

All the muscles, as I stated above, increase in size. I have noted an increase in the thigh of over an inch in a week. The abdomen is always first to show an enlargement, then the thighs and buttocks, although at the same time the neck, shoulders, arms and face are making visible progress. The calves do not make a corresponding gain while the patient is resting, but rapidly assume proper proportions on being called on to support the body in walking.

The rapid increase in girth of the abdomen is very significant. It means that the thirty-odd feet of the alimentary canal are being developed. From the condition so often seen at autopsies where persons have died of malnutrition and the intestines are thin and juiceless, perhaps as brown and almost as dry as the casing from a bologna sausage, they are changing to the thick, juicy and normal condition of an infant’s bowels.

The circulation of capillary blood vessels and lymphatics in and around the intestines is greatly increased on a milk diet. The fat of milk is in such minute globules, that it is ready for absorption by the lacteals and from them it is carried almost directly into the venous circulation. The large amount of fluid in milk which must pass through the blood before leaving the body, the greatly increased amount of fat, sugar, nitrogenous matters and salts in the right proportion an condition required for nourishment, stimulate the millions of glands lining the canal and they are compelled to increase in size and capacity.

The abdominal increase is very largely in the walls of the stomach and intestines at first. Later on there will be more or less fat deposited subcutaneously. Every healthy person has a protecting pad of fatty tissue in front of the intestines and stomach.

This intestinal development and enlargement is necessary to insure proper digestion and assimilation, but is occasionally objected to by ladies who note the loss of a wasp-like waist and the necessity for a new wardrobe with regret. They do not, however, object to the increase in the size and symmetry of the limbs and bust, the filling in of the hollows in the neck, the smoothing of the facial wrinkles and the “peaches and cream” complexion that go with it.

I am able to offer some comfort by informing them that a portion of the waist development will disappear when they become more active, and another portion will be lost when they quit the milk diet, but with a correct manner of living and sufficient nutritious food the stomach will never return to the previous abnormal condition.

During the last few years, I have noticed an increasing number of invalids with disorders of the bowels, principally the colon. These people have usually given a history of “catarrh,” or “inflammation of the bowels,” often of constipation, and rarely of diarrhoea. Some of them say they are full of acid and rheumatic. In a small percentage of these cases I notice the amount of milk they can take is limited, because an excess brings on diarrhoea. They may take three-and-one-half quarts of milk daily, but another pint causes a watery, acid diarrhoea. This acid diarrhoea is often due to lack of pancreatic secretion.

Examining the records of 820 recent patients, I find that a few days after starting on the milk diet 34 per cent of them were more or less constipated; 8 per cent of them had diarrhoea on anything over three-and-a-half quarts of milk daily, and 58 per cent were able to take enough milk to overcome the constipating tendency of the diet.

This shows that about one patient of every twelve or thirteen has loose bowels on what is considered a normal amount of milk, or the amount that keeps them from losing weight.

In the case of a patient commencing the milk diet and taking about six quarts, should diarrhoea occur and continue for more than thirty-six hours, with passages loose, sour or greenish, or containing small undigested curds, it is evident that the bowels are unable to digest all the food. The amount, therefore, must be reduced about one-half until solid movements occur only once or twice daily. Too little milk will cause constipation, and then the amount must be increased. I have seen cases where a variation in the daily amount taken, of two glasses, would make the difference between constipation and diarrhoea.

When the proper dose is found, these patients receive great and lasting benefits. On less than four quarts, the gain in weight is very small, and this is rather discouraging to some of them, but in every case of this kind where the quantity of milk has been carefully adjusted to the condition of the bowels, the ultimate result has been satisfactory.

Several ladies who were below weight and affected in this way only gained about two pounds a week, while on milk, but on returning to ordinary habits and diet, continued to gain at an even greater rate, and remained free from the trouble for which they took the milk cure.

In several cases of diarrhoea on the milk where patients can only take two or three quarts in 24 hours, I have found that a few dates, taken one at a time, two or three hours apart, and dissolved in the mouth, enable people to take a pint or two more every day.

A cracker or two may have the same effect, but I do not approve of them, because the same permanent cure does not seem to be obtained as on the exclusive milk diet.

In bad cases of chronic dysentery, perhaps due to tubercular infection of the bowels (consumption of the bowels), I have cured several by administering a small cupful of boiled rice and milk, two or three a day, in place of one of the regular drinks. The rice certainly helps to keep the food from passing through too quickly.

The skin, including the hair and nails, shows decided reactions in the milk cure. A healthy skin is a rarity nowadays, and the average candidate for the milk cure, with bad digestion, poor circulation, and probably kidney trouble, shows plain evidence of his internal disease by a great variety of skin disorders, ranging from the pale, white and dry leathery skin, to various forms of eruptions and inflammatory conditions.

Remarkable changes take place in this important organ. The capillary circulation grows faster, perhaps, in the skin, than in any other part of the body. The prolonged warm baths greatly assist in this improvement, by softening up the dead cells of the external layers, and by the moisture and warmth penetrating to the deeper layers. The baths alter distribution of blood pressure by increasing vascularisation of the skin and temporarily unloading congested internal organs. The warmth, moisture and water pressure increase oxidation, calm the nervous system, allay reflex instability, and produce sleep.

No matter how cold or dry or flabby or wrinkled the skin may be, between the warm baths externally and the increased amount of blood internally, the skin always seems to get back to a healthy condition. Patients, who had not visibly perspired for years, show a perceptible sweat within a few days, and frequently the skin starts up action suddenly, a short time after the patient has gone to sleep in the evening, and he wakes up bathed in perspiration. I have seen cases where not only the bed linen, but the mattress, as well, were so soaked with sweat as to require changing.

Such a climax, weakening and discouraging to some invalids on an ordinary diet, has just the opposite effect on the milk diet, because it is the result of increased capillary circulation, and not due to weakness of the blood vessels and thin, watery blood, as in the ordinary “night sweats.”

One symptom that many patients speak of while on the milk and resting, is cold feet. Not cold enough to be uncomfortable, but quite noticeable, especially as all the remainder of the body is warm and glowing. I have seen it so many times, even in patients who have never had such a thing before, that it seems quite natural to me. The reason is simple – the feet are hardly used while in bed and there is no need of the circulation of blood rushing there, as it does to the body generally, and also, the blood stops mostly in the abdomen and vital organs, where it has work to do. Cold feet are noticed more in the afternoon than any other time. Never at night, after milk drinking stops. Just as soon as the patient begins exercising the feet become normally warm. A pair of warm socks may be worn in bed or the fleece lined “foot warmers.” I do not approve of hot water bottles or any artificial heat.

If the warm, moist skin be rubbed, soon after starting on the milk diet, one can often notice little black rolls of dirt, dead cells, and waste matter discharged through the sweat glands, and the odour coming from the skin saturates the atmosphere of the room, and will be found excessively strong on opening the bed to air, especially with rheumatic patients. Indeed, the rooms of these patients smell like a vinegar factory for a few days.

A rapid increase in body weight occurs to every one below weight taking the full milk diet, no matter what his previous condition or disease. While this is usually welcome, there are certain patients who do not desire it, but they have to accept it, at first anyway, because it is almost impossible to take the cure correctly without gaining in weight.

Someone has divided the human race into two classes—those who are too fat, and those who are too thin, and while the milk cure appeals more to the latter class, yet it seems to me that stout people get just as much benefit from it as thin ones, but it is harder to induce them to take it. The gain in weight made by a person who is overweight or about normal, is not as great as that made by a thin or emaciated person. The latter will take on weight rapidly, almost as a sponge soaks up water. Most of them are poorly nourished, whether they are eating much or little, and the milk alone, taken under proper conditions, seems to be just what they need, and they build up all parts of the body very easily. The average gain in weight for thin folks is about five pounds the first week, and after that about half-a-pound daily. This latter rate continues for weeks or months, until they are near the normal weight. The greater increase for the first week is, in some measure, due to the fact that they have had more or les of a fast before commencing the diet, and are consequently almost empty, and in a good condition to assimilate nearly all of the milk.

A gain of fourteen pounds the first seven days has been made under my observation, and a young man gained ten-and-a-quarter pounds in his first three days, but his was a very exceptional case, as his stomach had been in such a wretched state that he had been unable to retain even the simplest food, previous to taking the treatment. I started giving him small and frequent doses of carefully warmed milk, while he was resting completely, in bed. Beyond a very slight pain in the stomach at first, he had no discomfort at any time, and rapidly regained his health.

I am often asked if the average rapid gain of flesh is not too great to form healthy tissues, and even if it may not be unsafe.

I say, emphatically, that all this increased weight is made of healthy tissues and that there is absolutely no danger while taking complete rest.

There are certain preparations advertised, by the use of which, it is claimed, rapid gain is made in weight, while eating ordinary foods. I have seen very injurious effects from the use of some of these drugs, and I regard such methods as wholly unnatural. The flesh gained is probably largely fat, and the digestive organs, instead of being built up and fitted for normal digestion, are worse off than before taking the medicine.

The gain made on the milk diet, while resting, is not principally fat, as some people imagine. An increase of an inch a week is an emaciated person’s thigh, between the knee and the hip, cannot be called fat. There is very little fat in this part at any time, but there is an enormous group of muscles and it is the growth of these muscles that produces the enlargement. The muscles increase because they are distended with blood.

The inunction of fat, or so-called flesh foods, or “oil rubs,” cannot produce any permanent benefit and may cause considerable harm. The massage may temporarily stimulate the circulation, but it would be better to practice it without the oil.

Only a few cases lose weight in the first week, while taking the amount of milk I prescribe.

Some of these suffer from valvular disease of the heart, and after the initial loss go on as usual, gaining weight and health.

One case had been the subject of several surgical operations and lost several pounds at first, but then gained at a fairly satisfactory rate.

Patients having dropsy are almost certain to lose weight at first. Sometimes the dropsy may be unsuspected, as in the abdomen, or around the heart, but when the quantity of urine voided exceeds the quantity of milk taken in, the evidence of internal dropsy is clear. I have known a patient to pass twelve quarts of urine in twenty-four hours, while only taking thirteen pints, or only about half as much milk.

Nothing can equal milk in curing dropsy.

Two gentlemen suffering from diabetes lost weight on the milk diet (six quarts) for a few days and both quit the treatment, but seemed to have derived some benefit from the short course.

Since writing the above, another advanced case of diabetes tried the exclusive milk diet for a week, and then refused to go on with it as he was losing weight and had become much weaker. I advised him to use all the buttermilk that he could assimilate, and have since heard that he made a wonderful improvement.

In discontinuing the diet, undoubtedly the best way to resume ordinary food is to stop the drinking of milk at noon and eat a very light supper the first day. A slightly cooked yolk of egg, bread and butter, salad or fruit, is enough. The next day start with the milk as early as usual, again stop at noon, and eat a somewhat heartier meal in the evening, if the appetite calls for it.

Another meal that may be taken the first day is well-cooked cornmeal mush and milk. Patients can eat all they desire, but nothing else may be taken with it. I have never known this “first meal” to disagree with anyone.

Always have some uncooked foods with your meal; salads, fruits, nuts, cheese, raw egg yolks served in various ways, olives and olive oil, or peanut oil, etc.)

A diet of two or three quarts of milk, taken in the forenoon and an evening meal, can be used ass long as desired. If cream has risen on the milk, remove it. Do not attempt to mix cream with milk, when drinking milk alone.

A breakfast of milk, not over a quart, with an apple, and two meals a day, will enable anyone to hold his weight, if proper combinations of food are made.

Always remember this: never stuff on ordinary foods. Milk is the only thing that can be used safely for forced feeding, and it must be taken alone, or in most cases, fruit can also be used.

After taking the milk cure, all patients who previously suffered from dyspepsia, and particularly nervous dyspepsia, must use care on resuming solid food. It is necessary to have a simple diet, to eat very lightly, and to observe regular hours for meals, never eating anything between meals, until the stomach becomes used to the change. If constipation returns, after a course of milk diet, it is almost a certain sign of overeating.

I have noticed in a few cases that some distress has occurred during the first few days after resuming solid food, but this symptom has soon disappeared as the organs became used to the diet. Usually there is not as much trouble in changing from milk to solids, as in changing from the usual food to the milk.