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TO THE READER. 7
vention of disease ; for the preservation of health ; and,
as far as that end can ever be attained, for its restora
tion. Having faithfully and carefully written it, I shall
have performed a part of my duty. I shall have done
the work at once, and for all, instead of wasting my
life in a thousand individual eflforts. Henceforth, when
a patient consults me, I shall say, with honest old Aber-
nethy, " Read my book !" I wish, as far as possible, to
retire from practice ; to devote my remaining years to
the more congenial pursuit of education, literature, and
social science. But, before I could do this, I felt that
I had a great duty to perform. The following pages
are the result of my endeavor to perform that duty.
As the material basis of all reform, and all progress
of humanity toward its true destiny, the world wants
health. Individuals are sick, communities are sick,
nations are sick. The very earth is diseased. All
must be cured together; but the work must begin with
the individual. Every man who purifies and invigorates
his own life, does something for the world. Every
woman who fives in the conditions of health, and avoids
the causes of disease, helps the race ; and if such per
sons combine their purified and invigorated lives in
healthy offspring, they do a noble work for the redemp
tion of universal humanity.
My heart glows with the exulting thought that this
book will be the means by which thousands of men and
women may preserve health for themselves, and trans
mit it to whole generations of strong, wise, and happy
beings ; that it may be one of the instrumentalities of a
real, physical redemption for mankind, out of which
will be developed all moral excellence, intellectual ele-