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The Germ Theory. Harry Benjamin N.D.
Introduction by Ivor Hughes

Introduction:
This extract is taken from Harry Benjamin�s best selling book published almost 70 years ago, �Everybody�s Guide to Nature Cure�. However it is not dated because the Medical Chickens are still coming home to roost. Today we have a situation where the Medical profession are the leading cause of death in the USA. And also in the other Western nations.

Many of our children are being born genetically damaged, and if not deformed, they suffer from multiple allergies, attention deficit syndrome, obesity, hyper activity, and asthma among just a few of the more prevalent conditions. The situation continues to deteriorate. Measles, Mumps and the other usual childhood illnesses have been turned into killer diseases. Daily, new and frightening diseases continue to emerge. How did this come about?

It came about because Pasteur was wrong and Bechamp was right. Pasteur was alleged to have said on his death bed, 'Bechamp was right, the microbe is nothing, the field is everything'. Simply put it means that you cannot grow a cabbage unless the soil is right! One cannot grow a microbe unless the conditions are right! Pleomorphic organisms are a scientific reality yet the medical profession ignores what has been staring them in the face for decades. Vaccination, when it is practiced on children and supported in law is a monstrous genocidal practice.  

If you care about your children and need  more background on the matter of Pleomorphic Organisms then go here:

 http://www.herbdatanz.com/pasteur_or_bechamp-pleomorphic_organisms-1.htm

Medicine without diet is an empty glass. For unless we remove the underlying cause of any malaise then what is to prevent it reoccurrence either in chronic form, or suppressed to reappear disguised in a different cloak? To which we will give yet another name to obfuscate a single aetiology.
The book was first published in 1936 i.e. nearly 70 years ago. Given the words, it has a prophetic ring, and yet because its truth is never changing it also has a modern luster that cannot be tarnished by the scientific put down, for the simple reason that it is plain common sense. Harry Benjamin was a British Naturopath, let him speak for himself!

CHAPTER III. NATURE CURE VERSUS MEDICAL SCIENCE.
That Fallacious Germ Theory! By ignoring the part played by the individual himself in the setting up of disease within his own body, and throwing all the emphasis on to purely extraneous factors, such as germs, our medical scientists have succeeded in giving the word GERM a significance and dread power ludicrously out of all proportion to the part these organisms actually play in the life processes of the individual human being. It is time the public realised what germs really are, and the part they really do play, if any, in the setting up and development of disease.

One would imagine, from the way the medical professions speak, that one tiny little germ or bacillus (countless thousands of which could scarcely cover the head of a pin) has only to enter the body of a "healthy" individual for that individual to be stricken with some fell disease or other. Perhaps typhoid! Perhaps cancer! And modern man goes around terrified out of his life because of the existence of these tiny creatures which he endows with such malevolent properties, and which he believes are always threatening him, and which only the most powerful microscope can reveal to his shuddering gaze.

What nonsense it all is! Our bodies are always full of germs and bacteria; they play a most important part in the working of the body, especially in the destructive processes. For constructive and destructive processes are always going on within the body, night and day, asleep or awake, whether we know it or not. When any living matter dies, it immediately begins to disintegrate into the simple chemical elements of which it is composed; and it is in breaking down dead organic matter into its elemental constituents that germs and bacteria are always employed by Nature.

We all know that a dead animal left lying about unburied will soon begin to rot; and it is precisely in this rotting process, which is simply the reduction of the once living organic matter back into the elements of which it is composed � that germs are active. They are just as much a part of natural phenomena as anything else in Nature, and are brought into existence to do their allotted task by that omnipresent Power which, for ever invisible, rules the workings of the universe.

All living matter must die and be reduced to dust again, and germs and bacteria are the appointed agents! They are the agents of disintegration! Now, the germs and bacteria which help in the breakdown of dead organic matter � whether it be of dead bodies or of cell waste and other effete matter thrown off by the living organism � are not very different in kind from the germs and bacteria hysterically supposed by Medical Science to be the main cause of disease in the human body ; and it is simply because they so lamentably misunderstand the work these tiny creatures do that the medical world attaches so much significance to germ action inside the body, when seeking for the solution of the problem of disease.

Germs and microbes take part in all disease phenomena because these are processes requiring the breaking down or disintegration of accumulated refuse and toxic matter within the body, which the system is endeavouring to throw off. But to assume, as our medical scientists do, that merely because germs and microbes are present and active in all disease phenomena, they are therefore the cause of these same diseases, is as purblind and childish as to assume that because germs and microbes are present and active in the decomposition processes connected with all dead organic matter, they are the cause of the death of the organic matter in question. The analogy is absolutely just and fair! And equally ridiculous!

But no one would say that because the decaying body of a dead dog is full of bacteria, the bacteria are the cause of the dog's death; we know that they are there as a part of the natural disintegrative process taking place as a result of the death of the dog. AND SO IT IS WITH GERMS AND DISEASE. Germs are part of the results of disease, not its cause. Germs and bacteria are present in disease not as causes, but as superficial helpers brought there by Nature to rid the body of disease. They are the "scavengers" employed by Mother Nature to break up and "bring to a head" the accumulated internal filth of years of unhygienic and unwholesome living, which are clogging the tissues of the body and preventing proper functioning.

It is the elimination of this accumulation of internal filth and waste material which is required if the treatment of disease is to be effective, not tinkering with germs and microbes. They will automatically disappear when the bodily filth and refuse have been got rid of, upon exactly the same analogy as that of flies and household filth, instead of bodily filth. Naturopathic practice proves this beyond doubt every day! Treatment which is directed merely towards the end of killing germs is treatment that can never be really effective, because it ignores the real causes of disease.

Thus, although germs and microbes are the very bugbear of orthodox Medical Science, they are of little account to Naturopathy. Because the Naturopath realises that they are part of the effects of disease, and not its cause, and will disappear when the real cause has been got rid of. But that does not mean to say that disease may not be contracted through germ contact.

Germs may be the apparent causes of disease in certain instances, and people may "catch" diseases from each other, but only because they have within their systems the soil for the propagation of these diseases in the shape of accumulated toxins and bodily NO ONE WHO IS CLEAN AND HEALTHY INSIDE CAN BE AFFECTED BY GERMS OR BECOME THE VICTIM OF GERM INFECTION.

When people understand this, they will be freed at last from the dread germ bogy which Medical Science has created for them out of its imperfect and superficial knowledge of the real action and effect of germs within the body ! It is the outcome of medical inability to distinguish between the real causes of disease and its superficial effects and manifestations.

In face of the question," What proof have you actually that the germ theory of disease is wrong? " it may be said that even in the case of acute infectious diseases � where the germ theory seems to explain the facts most fully, it can be demonstrated quite conclusively that people in ordinary health contain within their bodies the same germs that are claimed to be the cause of those same infectious diseases in others. This proves quite clearly that there must be some predisposing factor present in the body before an attack of any acute disease is possible. Given this predisposing factor, the germs become active; without it, they are harmless. This predisposing factor � which is entirely overlooked by our medical scientists � is in every case a lowered vitality and a body clogged with waste materials and impurities.

Why, out of their own mouths the medical profession refute the theory upon which practically the whole of their present work is based!

In an address on "The Falsity of the Germ Theory, and its Evil Results" given by M. Beddow-Bayly, M.D., at the annual meeting of the Anti-Vaccination League in 1928, Dr. Beddow-Bayly said : " I am prepared to maintain quite definitely that in no single instance has it been proved that an organism or germ is the primal cause of a disease. Secondly, that in no single instance has any serum been produced which can be shown to be successful in either preventing or curing disease. I would go further, and say that I have abundant evidence that the use of sera has resulted in incalculable harm and even death in man; that the discovery, manufacture, and testing of these sera are responsible for untold suffering among our younger brethren, the animals; and that the obsession of the minds of the medical fraternity by the clumsy and illogical germ theory has greatly retarded the progress of Medical Science by obscuring the solution of the real causes of disease."

During the course of the same address, Dr. Beddow-Bayly quoted numerous extracts from records of investigations made by medical investigators and research workers, all showing the untenability of the germ theory, of which the following is a fair example:

"Dr. Hamer, late Medical Officer of Health for the County of London, in his report for 1915, dealing with the investigations of Dr. Houston, the Water Examiner to the Metropolitan Water Boards, finds that the evidence supports the theory ' that it is typhoid fever which leads to the development of the bacillus,' and not vice versa, and ' that the bacillus should be looked upon as effect, rather than cause."

Perhaps the most striking illustration of all, given by Dr. Bayly in support of his contention as to the unsoundness of the germ theory, is the following: "The celebrated Professor Pettenkofer, to show his disbelief in the then recently mooted germ theory, swallowed a test-tubeful of cholera germs � supposed to be sufficient to kill a whole regiment of soldiers! before a classful of gaping students. Nothing happened! As Pettenkofer maintained, in support of his amazing act,' Germs are of no account in cholera. The important thing is the disposition of the individual."

These quotations and illustrations, from authoritative medical sources themselves, regarding the instability of the germ theory can be multiplied ad lib., if one has a mind to. But why go farther? Surely the reader has here sufficient proof of the inadequacies of that theory of disease upon which the whole fabric of modern medication is built? To seek for the cause of disease in merely extraneous factors, such as germs and other outside agents, is to turn one's mind, once and for all, away from the possibility of an understanding of the true nature and cause of disease. THAT IS WHAT THE WHOLE MEDICAL WORLD IS DOING TO-DAY. With what result? The state of our hospitals and the general health of the nation are ample witness!

The Unity of Disease.
The reader will now be fully ready for the acceptance of the cardinal principle of Nature Cure, which is, that although, thanks to the pedantry and misconceptions of the leaders of orthodox Medical Science, the names of diseases are legion, in reality their basic and fundamental causes are the same in every case, viz., a body clogged with waste materials and impurities ; and that no matter what the particular disease in question might be called, apart from shock, or direct injury, or mechanical interference with the blood and nerve supply, its causes can always be found in disturbance of function due to three main factors :

Wrong feeding ; Improper care of the body ; Habits of living tending to set up enervation and nervous exhaustion, such as worry, fear, overwork, excesses of all kinds, sexual abuse, temperamental and environmental difficulties, etc. It is these three main factors, coupled with hereditary and predisposing influences, such as physique, personal peculiarities, and the like (and aided by previous medical interferences with drug and knife), which decide exactly what form disease will take in any given individual � whether it will be rheumatism or sciatica, kidney trouble or diabetes, bronchitis or eczema, typhoid or pneumonia, cataract or deafness. So that what one has always to remember is that no matter what a disease may be described as in medical terminology, in essence " disease" is the same in every case, because the underlying causes which determine the condition in the first place are identical, although the superficial symptoms and manifestations appear in so many different guises.

Nature Cure and Medical.
It is because they understand this fundamental oneness and unity of all disease that practitioners of Nature Cure are enabled to secure such seemingly miraculous results in the treatment of disease. For, instead of being appalled by the apparent intricacy, vastness, and hopeless complexity of the spectacle of disease opened up to the mind by a study of pathology along orthodox medical lines, and spending his time in vainly endeavouring to grasp the significance of those merely superficial and extraneous manifestations of disease, which, through a total lack of understanding of the matter, the medical profession calls disease � a thousand different diseases according to a thousand different symptoms � the Naturopath gets straightway down to the root of the trouble (the actual fundamental causes of which are the same in every case), and by rectifying these is thus enabled to effect a permanent cure. Whereas his medical confrere aimlessly flutters about the surface of the matter, attempting to patch up or get rid of symptoms, which are really the superficial effects of disease and not the real trouble at all !

The Naturopath deals with fundamental, unchanging causes, and pays very little heed to symptoms, except as they may guide him in locating the actual seat of the trouble (which is always deep within the system); the medical practitioner deals merely with the symptoms themselves, looks to externals for causes, and remains blissfully unconscious as to the very existence of the real underlying factors involved. The result is, that under orthodox medical methods of treatment not only is such a thing as real cure impossible in any given case, because of the neglect of the chief factors concerned, but the underlying disease-condition is yet further intensified and aggravated by this tampering with symptoms.

For not only does Medical Science mistake symptoms for diseases, but these self-same superficial symptoms and manifestations � which the Naturopath uses only as guides to locating disease, and which he leaves quietly alone because he realises that they are not harmful in themselves, but really Nature\'s attempts at self-healing and self-cleansing �are suppressively treated with drugs and surgery, and irreparable harm is thus done to the system by this "thwarting" of the body's natural attempts at healing itself.

Disease a Self-healing Process.
What the medical profession calls a 'cure' is merely the suppression of superficial symptoms, to cause further and more serious trouble later on ! What the medical profession never understands is, that in every case disease itself, with all its varied multiplicity of expression, is merely NATURE'S ATTEMPT AT SELF-HEALING, and must never be thwarted, fought against, checked, or suppressed, but helped (as it were) out of the system by an understanding of the real causes at work and by active or passive collaboration, as the case may be.

"The Nation's Fighters against Disease"
That is the proud title of the medical profession, and in it is expressed all their failure to understand the real essential nature of disease!

Disease is not inimical to the system, something to be fought against; but it is a self-healing crisis brought about by factors, already described, which the system finds a hindrance and impediment to proper functioning! Disease, in short, is the result of man's own follies and mistakes which Nature is doing her best to rectify for him. In effect, therefore � and if the reader can follow this clearly, he or she will be for ever emancipated from the universal besetting fear of disease � disease is nothing more or less than Nature's blind attempt at cure. It is the system's attempt to deal as effectively as it can under given conditions with factors which, through man's ignorance, folly, and self-indulgence, are causing impediment of function!

Two Completely Divergent Philosophies.
The great surgeon or physician, even the petty general practitioner, vainly and foolishly imagines that "he \" can cure disease by suppressing symptoms and thwarting Nature\'s work. The practitioner of natural methods of treatment, knowing full well his own feebleness within the mighty, all embracing powers and forces of Nature, bows his head with humility, and says, "Not I, but Nature cures. All I can do is help Nature to do her work by all the means within my power." Herein lie the failure of orthodox medicine and the triumph of natural methods of treatment.

One is based upon a philosophy which looks upon disease as something which "happens" to man quite by ill luck, accident, or chance; something which enters the body from without � germs or microbes � and has to be fought against and defeated. The other is based upon a philosophy which realises that all disease emanates from within the body, is self generated as a result of individual mistakes and errors of living, and is Nature's blind attempt at self-healing. Two completely antithetical and contradictory philosophies of disease!

The one exonerates man from all blame with regard to all the ills that befall him, allowing him to pity himself as a much injured martyr, always at the mercy of a wayward and malign Providence, never knowing when he may be attacked by some awful microbe or prowling germ, and by means of outside agent�s attempts to "cure" him ; and the other states definitely and conclusively that man's ills are in every case the outcome of his own mistakes and misdeeds, " as a man sows, so shall he also reap", and that only by rectifying these same mistakes will his troubles be finally overcome and a definite cure effected.

The medical profession claims that it can cure diseases by means of drugs, surgery, inoculations, etc.; Nature Cure says that man must cure himself of disease, but with the aid of help and advice from those qualified by training and experience to give it! "The Fruits " of the Old Philosophy of Disease ! "Every tree is known by his own fruit," said Christ to His disciples. Let the men and women of to-day see for themselves the "fruits" of orthodox medical philosophy! They are there before our eyes!

New diseases, such as neurasthenia and pernicious anemia, arising every few years; an appalling advancement in chronic diseases, such as cancer, rheumatism, diabetes, kidney disease, asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, etc., etc., every year; devastating plagues of �flu; nervous disorders triumphantly ascending; indigestion, constipation, colds, coughs, catarrh, and such-like "hom"ailments more prevalent than ever before � is it not time for the new to supersede the old?

Away with the effete and worn-out philosophy which sees no connection between man's food follies and maltreatment of his body and bodily functions and the diseases he suffers from; which attempts to "fight" disease, yet cringes before it in fear and hopeless lack of confidence! Let us inaugurate a new era in world history an era in which man will accept the full responsibility for the diseases from which he suffers as being the results of his own follies and mistakes (either knowing or unknowing), and not iniquities and tortures devised for and thrust upon him by a malign Providence !

The late Harry Benjamin N.D.

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