1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com

OF
WHEN the German chemist
Richard Willstatter was a boy,
one of his closest friends, tenMyearold
Sepp Schwab, cut his knee while
chopping wood. Since his parents
had strictly forbidden him to use
the ax, young Sepp concealed his injury.
However, after a few days infection
set in, and by the time the
condition finally came to the attention
of Sepp's parents the infection
had become serious. A doctor was
called and he decided that the only
way to save the boy was to amputate
the leg at once. It was only
after strong persuasion by the parents
that the doctor agreed to postpone
the operation until the following
morning.
That evening when they were discussing
what they could do for their
son, the father suddenly remembered
the marvelous cures performed
by a certain shepherd. Immediately
the man was found. After
examining Sepp, he went out into
the fields and came back with a
handful of plants. The Schwabs recognized
some of them as the ontinary
nettle, plantain and watercress.
The shepherd cut all of these into
very fine pieces, until they were a
mass that resembled cooked spinach.
This was applied to the wound.
The next morning when the doctor
arrived, he was surprised to find
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CABBAGE
that the infection was considerably
improved and the fever had receded.
He, therefore, was agreeable to postponing
the amputation again. By
this time the shepherd had brought
more herbs, and this second mixture
was even more successful than the
first. In time the swelling disappeared
entirely and the wound
healed.
It is reported that this healing effected
by plants made an indelible
impression upon young Richard
Willstatter, who was watching closely
the progress of his little friend.
Later, Willstatter studied chemistry
at Munich University and became an
outstanding student of the biochemistry
of plants. For his investigations
into chlorophyll and the revolutionary
discoveries he made,
Willstatter was awarded the Nobel
Prize in 1915.
But despite such investigations
that revealed the marvelous processes
of plants, during the years that
followed, the attention of medical
men was directed almost exclusively
toward the producing of synthetic
drugs. Scientists and doctors, for the
most part, had no interest in investigating
the healing properties of
plants. However, in view of the
many remarkable cures realized by
employing plants, there is certainly
no good reason to hold a contemptuous
attitude toward them. They
have been used successfully in medicine
for centuries.
Successful Plant Remedies
For hundreds of years Polynesians
used the leaves of the papaya tree
to treat their wounds. When a person
was injured, his wound was
bound in these leaves. Modern medi-
AWAKE!