Before relatingmy own experiences with urine- therapy, it is advisable to quote some opinions derived from both ancient and modern sources as to the value of urine as a curative agent. Towards the beginning of last century, a book entitled One ‘Tho,v “”d Notable Things’ was published sim’ata- neously in , -,’ Scotland and Ireland. ” An universal and excellent remedy for all distempers inward and outward drink you own water in the morning nine days together and it cures the scurvy, makes the body lightsome and cheerful. “It is good against the dropsy and jaundice, drun., as before (stated). ” Wash your ears with it warm and it is good against deafness, noises and most other ailments in the ears. ” Wash your eyes with your own water and it cures sore eyes and clears and strengthens the sight. “Wash and rub your hands with it and it takes away numbness, chaps and sores and makes the joints limber.
“Wash any green wound with it and it is an extraoridinary good thing. ” Wash any part that itches and it takes it (the itch) away. ” Wash the fundament and it is good against Files and. other sores.” Here is another quaintly expressed extract from an old.book calledSalmon’s English Physician,publis’led in 1695, which I will quote in part “Urine is taken from human kind and most four- footed animals ; but the former is that which is chiefly uses: in Physick and Chemistry.
It is the serum or watery part of the blood, which being diverted by the emulgent arteries to the reins is there separated, and by the ferment of the parts, converted into urine…. Man’s or woman’s urine is hot, dry (?), dissolving, cleansing, discussing, resists putrefaction ; used inwardly against obstructions of the liver, spleen, gall, as also against theDropsie, Jaundice, Stoppage of the tens in women, the Plague and all manner of malign fevers.
” Outwardly (applied) it cleanses the skin and softens itby washing it therewith, especially being warm, or new made. Cleanses, heals and dries up wounds, though made with poisoned weapons. Cures dandruff, scurf, and bathed upon the pulses, cools the heat of fevers. Is excellent against trembling, numbness and the palsy. and bathed upon the region of the spleen, urine eases the pains -‘hereof. “Thevirtues of the volatile salts of urine-
It powerfully absorbs acids and destroys the very root of most diseases in human bodies. It opens all obstructions of ….Reins.Mysentery and Womb, purifies the whole mass of Blood and Humors cures . . . Caclexia .. . Rheumatism and Hypochrondriac diseases, and is given withadmirablesuccessinEpilepsies,Vertigoes, Apoplexies, Convulsions,Lythargies, . Migraine, Palsies, Lameness, Numbness, loss of the use of limbs, atrophies. vapors, fits of the mother, and most cold and moist diseasesof the head, brain, nerves, joints and womb. (Leucorrhoea should be added to this list.)
” It opens obstructions of the reins and urinary pas- sages,dissolves tartarous coagulations in those parts, breaks, and expels stone and gravel.” It is a specific remedy against Dysuria, Ischuria and all obstructions of Urine whatsoever.” So much for this panegyric on what some of us have come to termthecan de vie.But one also reads that in the 18th century it was much extolled as a valuable mouth-wash by a Parisian dentist. Iwill now quote some modern opinions as to the value of urine.
Writing inCandide,Prof. Jean Rostande repeatedly stresses the biological significance of those substances known as hormones. The gist of his article of some 1.250 words may be condensed as follows ” A recent discovery regarding the activity of hor- mones has completely revolutionised their study-viz.. that certain of them filter through the kidney to pass out in the urine. Multiple hypophysical hormones, the hormones of the adrenal and hormones of the sexual glands, have been found in normal urine . . . The discovery of hormone-urinoltogy has had far-reaching conse- quences.
Urine provides a practically unlimited quantity of basic matter….From the therapeutic point of view it is possible to envisage the use of these human hormones as apparently capable of exercising great power over the human organism….” Thus urine extolled by many of the ancients, but misunderstood by the semi-moderns, now appears in the light of a wonderful reservoir–a philtre of pre-eminent value. Itcontains in a pure and often undreamt of quantity, products of the most vital nature, bearing out what Mr. Ellis Barker maintained when he wrote that ” our body distils the most wonderful medicines and pro- vides the most perfect serums and anti-bodies.”
I will now quote some remarks taken from a pamph et by Dr. T. Wilson Deachman, Ph.C., M.D., who writes ” As the urine content varies according to the patho- logical state of the patient, its use is indicated in all forms of disease except those caused by traumatism (broken limbs) or those that are of a mechanical nature. It saves the physician from the mistake that is mad.. in selecting the indicated remedy from three thousand drugs or more…. What cannot be cured by the forces of the body cannot be cured by the forces outside the body.”
It is not irrelevant here to mention that the late Maurice Wilson, who made a magnificent, if abortive, attempt to climb Mount Everest, ascribed his immunity from ordinary ills and his astonishing stamina to his many fastson urine only, plus external friction with urine. 1. ; Llamas of Thibet and the yogis with whom he associated prior to his attempt, claim to live to a great age by means of the use of urine. By the same means they can also traverse deserts inaccessible to ordinary mortals.
Last century, between the eighteen-sixties to seventies, the drinking of one’s own urine was a well-known cure for jaundice, and some doctors had the courage to pre- scribe it.I learned from one of my patients that, when he was a boy, his grandfather had cured him of an attack of jaundice by urging him, on the advice of a doctor, to drink all the urine he passed during the four days of his illness. Among gipsies, the health-giving properties of urine have been known for centuries.
Cow’s urine has been taken in large quantities for the cure of Bright’s dise, se, dropsy and other afflictions. I once met a Dorset farr ier who had over a period of sixty years drunk four pints of cow’s urine a day. He was 80 at the time, strait-ht as a yard-stick, and he told me that he was never ill. He had, on the advice of a gipsy, begun the treatment at tI.e age of 20 for throat and chest trouble.Nevertheless, ” As the urine content varies according to the patho- logical state of the patient, its use is indicated in all forms of disease except those caused by traumatism (broken limbs) or those that are of a mechanical nature.
It saves the physician from the mistake that is mad.. in selecting the indicated remedy from three thousand drugs or more…. What cannot be cured by the forces of the body cannot be cured by the forces outside the body.” It is not irrelevant here to mention that the late Maurice Wilson, who made a magnificent, if abortive, attempt to climb Mount Everest, ascribed his immunity from ordinary ills and his astonishing stamina to his many fastson urine only, plus external friction with urine.
Lamas of Tibet and the yogis with whom he associated prior to his attempt, claim to live to a great age by means of the use of urine. By the same means they can also traverse deserts inaccessible to ordinary mortals. Last century, between the eighteen-sixties to seventies, the drinking of one’s own urine was a well-known cure for jaundice, and some doctors had the courage to pre- scribe it.I learned from one of my patients that, when he was a boy, his grandfather had cured him of an attack of jaundice by urging him, on the advice of a doctor, to drink all the urine he passed during the four days of his illness.
Among gipsies, the health-giving properties of urine have been known for centuries. Cow’s urine has been taken in large quantities for the cure of Bright’s dise, se, dropsy and other afflictions. I once met a Dorset farr ier who had over a period of sixty years drunk four pints of cow’s urine a day. He was 80 at the time, strait-ht as a yard-stick, and he told me that he was never ill. He had, on the advice of a gipsy, begun the treatment at tI.e age of 20 for throat and chest trouble.
Nevertheless, cow’s urine as a curative agent is inferior to the patient’s own urine, and I have known it to fail in a case of Bright’s disease brought on by alcoholism. The wiser of the ancient Greeks used nothing but urine for the treatment of wounds.The Eskimos even to this day adopt the same measures. The question may be asked if urine-therapy has been used by anyone in comparatively recent times?And the answer is in the affirmative.
Apart from others, the late W. H. Baxter, J.P., of Leeds and Harrogate, not only took his own urine, but wrote numerous pamphlets on thesubjectwhichmight have been regarded more seriously had they not been interlarded with somewhat irrelevant moralisings.” Mr. Baxter, who lived to a ripe old age, declaring that he had cured himself of a cancerous growth by applying his own urine in the form of com- presses, and by drinking his own urine neat.
He further declared that he had cured himself of other complaints by these simple means.Mr. Baxter contended that urine is the finest antiseptic that exists, and, having made this discovery, he formed the daily habit of drinking three tumblers full as a prophylactic against disease. He maintained that if autogenous urine is taken in this way, the more innocuous it becomes.He applied it to his eyes as a strengthening lotion, and used it, after shaving, for his complexion.
He also advocated its external use for wounds, swellings, boils, etc.As an aperient he declared it to be unsurpassed.” (SeeDoctors, Disease and Health, by Cyril Scott.) I can vouch for the truth of this statement, as Mr. Baxter was for a short time one of my patients. But what is not mentioned in the above is that during the treatment hefastedon urine and water only.his fasting, as the reader will see later, is an, essential part of the treatment-at any rate in serious disease conditions.
In some rural districts the use of cow’s urine has been advocated by doctors for boils.A case may be quoted of a man who had a number of painful boils under his arm. They were quickly cured by compresses of cow’s urine. En passant,Imay mention that not so long ago one of the most exclusive and expensive toilet soaps was made from the dehydrated salts and fats of the urine of grass-fed cows, and another from the urine of Russian peasants.(My informant was a chemist who knew what he was talking about.)Furthermore some expensive face- creams contain hormones derived from human urine. ” What the eye seeth not….”