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Every organ and tissue of the human body is constructed for a particular function, whether by design or evolution it matters not which, these functions are regulated by laws as uniform as those of physics and chemistry.

These laws govern the body’s actions and maintain its integrity. These laws are not legal enactments, they are not subject to amendment or suspension. They are the exposition of our perception of regularities or uniformities that we observe in nature.

The organs of the body must perform their functions according to their nature, they must observe the laws of their constitution. It is not possible for the liver to think, nor the lungs to digest, nor the stomach to breathe. In the nature of things it could not be otherwise.

We live in a universe of law and order and the progress of science over the last 400 years has certainly reinforced this notion. We can appreciate the laws of chemistry involved in the elementary occurrence of chemical affinity. We understand from our study of physics why ships float and why they sink, why aeroplanes fly and often why they sometimes crash.

We do not imagine for a moment that the laws of chemistry and physics may be repealed, suspended, terminated or broken. We cannot alter the constitution of nature, all we can do is attempt to understand it, to see the regularities and uniformities and to adduce principles from these observations and apply these principles in our daily life. We are able to establish causal correlations between events and make predictions that are frequently correct. This is a legitimate part of science.

The principles and forces controlling the body are the same in disease as in health. The action seen in disease is not the antithesis of the action seen in health. The organism does the best it can under the circumstances. Dr. Isaac Jennings established the principles of Orthopathy, or physiological lawfulness; which claimed that the action in health and disease is right action. It may occasion suffering because of adverse conditions. The patient, in disease, may suffer, not because the action of the body is wrong, but because the circumstances and conditions within, demand some defensive, remedial, or adaptive effort. The body is governed by law and order equally when sick as when well. However, right action may be the wrong description. The body does not always do the right thing.

Disease is a survival mechanism, it is a process – it is not an attack, it is not an entity, it is not a virulent enemy. Disease has no overt existence per se, what we refer to in disease is the modified functions of the organism in an attempt to cope with the internal and external threats. The body’s actions under all conditions and circumstances are for its own survival, but they are not always successful. The causes of disease, which should be identified and recognised as different from the disease process, may be so overwhelming that even the strongest organism and the most vigorous defensive measure is unsuccessful. The organism has to withstand countless assaults on its integrity.

The famous nurse, Florence Nightingale, wrote in her book, “Notes on Nursing”: “Shall we begin by taking it as a general principle – that all disease, at some period or other of its course, is more or less a reparative process, not necessarily accompanied with suffering; and the effort of nature to remedy a process of poisoning or of decay, which has taken place weeks, months, sometimes years beforehand, unnoticed, the termination of the disease being then, while the antecedent process was going on, determined?”

I am not prepared to make the claim that the actions of the body are always right. I believe as a general principle this is so and I do not think, in general, that the so called symptoms of disease are destructive processes or evils to be resisted, combated, suppressed, subdued, subverted or to use the more refined term, cured. The symptoms of disease are direct evidence of the body’s resistive, defensive, remedial, eliminative and adaptive processes functioning according to biological law to preserve the life and integrity of the organism.

It is the function of the physician or practitioner to understand the mechanisms of health and disease in order to harness the forces of the organism and remove impediments to its successful operation: to remove the causes of disease and supply the conditions of health. Anything more is unnecessary, anything less is irresponsible.

HEALTH AND DISEASE
1. Normal. The regular and orderly actions of the organism in the conduct of the processes of life. The maintenance of homeostasis; these actions may be termed, physiological.

2. Abnormal. The alterations and modifications of the normal, regular actions of the body, as are demanded and necessary to overcome, destroy or adapt to the harmful conditions, agents and materials (causes) that threaten to disturb homeostasis. The defensive, remedial and adaptive processes that attempt to restore normal function. This is pathological.

The first of these vital actions we call health, the second represents disease. First we should understand clearly that there is a principle, a unity of the actions of the body in health and disease, that behind both physiological and pathological actions are the same powers of life with the same end, to survive, to preserve and maintain life.

Dr. Russell Trall, the eminent hygienist of the nineteenth century, enunciated the Law of Action, that is whenever action occurs within the living organism following its exposure to some extraneous physical, chemical, thermal, electrical agent material influence the action must be ascribed to the living organism and not to the extraneous material. It is the body that acts and not the agent or influence that has no power to act.

If we inadvertently cut our finger through the incompetent use of a sharp object, there is pain, bleeding, heat, redness, swelling; the blood clots and eventually the scab sloughs and healing has taken place. It is elementary and patently obvious to state that if we cut the tissues of a cadaver none of these things take place. If you clumsily strike your hand with a hammer there is pain, haemorrhage into the tissues, inflammation and subsequent healing. Similarly, strike the hand of a dead person and none of these things follow. The cut is the effect of the knife, the bruise is the effect of the hammer.

All of the ensuing phenomena are the actions of the living body in response to mechanical and physical injury. If you spill hydrochloric acid on a cadaverous body it will destroy the flesh exposed to it. Pour the acid on a live body and it will do the same thing. Similarly, a powerful alkali placed on the cadaver will destroy the flesh, it will do the same to the flesh of the living body. In these examples the action is chemical, not vital. The chemical substances destroy, however the chemical action is followed by nothing but further destruction in the cadaver, whereas in the living organism, the chemical action is followed by pain, inflammation and subsequent healing. These are vital actions; actions of the body.

We should not confuse chemical action with vital action. If a laxative is administered to the healthy person a vigorous emptying of the bowels or diarrhoea occurs. A laxative place in the bowels of a dead person does not occasion action of the bowels. The bowel movement and diarrhoea are eliminative actions that are part of the body’s defence, to protect from the damaging effect of the chemicals (drugs).

So from this we may deduce: “The actions of the living organism in the presence of a drug are the responses of its own powers to the drug and are proportional to the degree of the body’s vigour.” This principle expresses the reason why some people offer more vigorous resistance and defence against substances than others.

The above principle was expounded by the late Dr. Shelton but I rather doubt that the clause “proportional to the degree of its vigour” is accurate. Some people in good health respond effectively and efficiently to chemical onslaughts, yet others whose health and vigour is not good may make a highly exaggerated response, as seen in an allergy. An allergic reaction may be so severe as to exhaust the patient to the point of death.

Human flesh may be burned with fire, destroyed by chemicals, killed by electricity and consumed by parasites (vital organisms). In every instance the body will act to defend and repair itself. Its actions are modifications of the ordinary and normal processes of life. Disease, similar to health, is a manifestation of the powers of life. The various efforts of the body to defend and repair itself are commonly viewed as processes that endanger life. It is regularly and frequently confused; vital actions are mistaken for the actions of pathogenic agents and materials. Through a proper understanding of the nature of disease we will cease fighting disease with the delusion that we are destroying an attacking entity. Once we understand the basically remedial nature of disease, that it has survival qualities, that it is valuable to recovery, then we will work to assure the sick the best possible hygienic conditions under which the organism can maintain these remedial processes to a successful conclusion. Disease only exists where there are causes, that is, where it is necessary, and it will last as long as it is necessary. If it is suppressed in one location it will arise in another, this is the evolution of chronic disease, the repeated suppression of acute phases. Chronic disease is built by the same causes as acute disease and so long as causes are ignored the evolution of disease, acute to chronic, is inevitable.