Adolf Just, Return to Nature

Earth Bandages and Earth Compresses 119

The Rationale of Earth Bandages and Earth Compresses119

The great significance of Earth Bandages 119

Directions for Earth Bandages 121

No Blood Poisoning through Earth Bandages 121

Earth Compresses 122

Significance and Application of Earth Compresses 123

Directions for Earth Compresses 124

Earth and Sand Baths 126

Earth and Clay as Skin Purifiers 127

EARTH BANDAGES AND EARTH COMPRESSES.

In the Bible we read, Gen. 2:7: "And the Lord God formed manof the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

*Of course, light, air and earth-power, as well as the natural bath, or light and *Of course, light, air and earth-power, as well as the natural bath, or light and air without earth-power, may be employed in the manner set forth, unaccompanied by the natural mode of nutrition, and yet very important results be achieved in theway of health and happiness. But the gain may obviously be greatly increased if thenatural mode of nutrition that I shall describe in the second part of this book is added.

**It is one of the greatest and saddest errors into which men fall when assuming that God sends disease and premature death out of love. This is making a caricature of God's love and wisdom. All the diseases and all the misery in the world are nothing hut the necessary consequence and punishment for our offences against the laws of nature in our mode of life. Man then is made of earth.

For wounds and all skin diseases, therefore, moist earth is the only truly natural bandage. The body is thus repaired, so to speak, with the element from which it is created.

Savage nations (in India, etc.) always use moist earth for wounds and skin troubles, as I have been repeatedly informed by travelers, and thus achieve wonderfully rapid cures. Animals, too, employ earth for wounds. If an elephant, for instance, has been cudgeled, and has received skin wounds from it, he at once moistens the earth with his saliva, stirs it into a soft mass, and covers his wounds with it.

The bandage with moist earth or clay has frequently been used for animals, for instance, for horses in diseases of the legs.

The bandages with moist earth which we are led to adopt when we once more attend to all the arrangements and voices of nature, is one of our greatest achievements. All wounds, all dangerous inflammation of wounds, all wound-fevers, and all skin diseases have through it lost all their dangers and horrors. All the many amputations and operations could be prevented, and endless evil could be avoided. The curing of all wounds and all skin troubles is accomplished through moist earth in the shortest possible time without any pain and any distress whatever. This truly natural bandage is so very excellent that it is mere play to cure wounds and skin troubles with it. In times of war, especially, this earth bandage must acquire the very greatest significance.

For every injury of the skin, wounds of cutting, stabbing, burning, shooting, etc., for every boil or ulcer, every inflammation, stings and bites of animals, blood-poisoning, for all skin diseases, cancer, lupus, tetter, dandruff, eruptions, leprosy, for broken bones, etc., the affected locality ought to be bandaged with moist earth or moist clay.

The earth is moistened with water, but saliva may also be used. One will soon feel the coolness and the great comfort of such a bandage, and will be amazed by the striking curative effect of it. Yes, the earth, indeed! How many are there who recognize its wondrous curative power?

The earth bandage is made by taking the earth (or clay) as moist as possible, and placing it directly on the wound (if possible into it). A linen bandage is then tied around it to keep the earth in place. The wound must not first be covered with a linen rag to prevent the earth from directly touching the wound. Of course, people to-day will think an earth bandage much too simple. Their restless, unstable mind tries to concoct salves, by means of great scientific researches, and with the aid of complicated apparatus, although a simple bandage with earth will heal the

wounds exceedingly well, and without any danger whatever, while salves are often most dangerous.

Many fear that blood poisoning may set in from a bandage with moist earth because the earth might be contaminated. No one will be likely to take the earth from a place where refuse and other impurities have been deposited. But no one seems to think today of the impurities which are introduced into the body through unnatural food, through meat and alcohol, which cause so many diseases, and on account of which wounds often become so dangerous. One never fears the poison within, but thinks always of those that may penetrate the body from without, without the knowledge of man, although no danger whatever threatens from the latter source (not even in a bandage with moist earth).

When the earth bandage is taken off a fluid of an offensive odor generally flows away. The earth has drawn this impure matter from the vicinity of the wound; it has, therefore, kept the wound itself, and the surrounding parts, free from impurities and decayed matter, etc., and this explains how it is that a bandage with moist earth heals so remarkably fast and well.

How can one fear that wounds will receive dangerous impurities from the earth? If some impure matter should find its way into the wound through the earth the latter would at once draw it out again and destroy it. Some object, too, that the earth might contain manure. But it is a well-known fact that country people, for instance, will place cow dung directly on the wound, and so heal it without blood poisoning

setting in. Therefore the dung in the earth of the earth bandage need not frighten us.

The fear of bacilli, however, which, according to modern researches have been found in the earth, is so great to-day, and every calm reflection is so entirely wanting in the matter, that one can hardly venture to advise anyone to try the moist earth bandage.

One might actually get into conflict with the police in doing so. But we need not be intimidated by such old and deep-rooted views and prejudices. It goes without saying that I have always observed only the most conspicuously favorable results with all the many moist earth bandages that I have applied. Never was there any damage done to health, or a single case of blood poisoning.

We have seen that instinct leads savages and animals to cure their wounds with earth. But instinct never misleads; we can always follow it without misgivings. It can never harm us.

A natural mode of living (abstention from alcohol, tobacco, meat, etc.), is, of course, strongly to be recommended, or rather necessary, especially in the case of large wounds, as I have already demonstrated.

I have now still a few words to say about EARTH COMPRESSES, which are used in a variety of ways. The earth has, as I have already said, the power of dissolving and absorbing. It dissolves the foreign matter and absorbs it, so to speak.

It is well known that earth has been instinctively applied to the sting of bees, and the bite of snakes. In John 9:1, 6, and 7 we read: "And as Jesus passed by He saw a man which was blind from his birth. When he had thus spoken He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

And He said unto him, go wash in the pool of Siloam. He went his way, therefore, and washed and came seeing."

Through the wonderful healing power that inheres in the earth, earth compresses, too, become of the greatest importance. Many a local trouble will flee from an earth compress as if by magic. It is nature's power again that works the wonder here.

In the case of ALL diseases the general treatment of the body with water, light and air, natural food, etc., is very important. It is through these measures that health may be permanently restored.

But great advantages attach also to local treatment. If prompt results are to be achieved, direct treatment of the affected spot is sometimes even very necessary. But for this purpose the only truly natural and really effective remedy is EARTH.

Hitherto water compresses have been employed in such cases, the Priessnitz compresses and packs, which consist in applying a wet linen cloth to the sick spot and covering it with woollen bandages to produce warmth.

The earth compresses, however, are much more in accordance with nature and much more effective, since the earth will hold more water and retain it longer, and possesses moreover a dissolving and absorbing power of its own.

The entire list of Priessnitz water compresses, including the compress on the abdomen, and all the different kinds of packs, are far surpassed by the earth compresses, and will soon be entirely superseded by the latter.

These compresses are made of moist earth in the same way as the Priessnitz compresses and packs, only that moist earth is used instead of water. The earth must be as moist as possible short of being thin enough to run. In order to make an earth compress, the moist earth (or clay) is spread over the affected spot, on the abdomen, the chest, the eye, around the throat, on the neck, the cheek, the leg, the calf, the foot, the hand, the sexual parts, on the region of the kidneys, the liver, the spine, etc. It is then first covered with a linen cloth, somewhat larger than the spot covered by the earth. Then another covering of cotton or wool is placed over the linen, and the whole wound about with bandages, so as to remain in place. Strings may be sewed to one end of the bandage to facilitate the operation.

Every thinking skillful person will soon find out how the earth compress may best be put on in each particular case. The point to be considered is chiefly this, how the moist earth may be made to stay securely in place. The bandage may be made of cotton or wool. Wool, however, is not as necessary as it is in water compresses, since the earth warms itself. But in the case of patients who have little animal heat, it is always best to use woollen bandages.

In these earth compresses we possess a remedy which we may AT ONCE apply in all the cases of sickness that occur in daily life, and for all manner of pains. It will always prove most effective. In most cases it will produce instant relief and improvement. In difficult cases the compress must be continued for some time. Earth is, so to speak, a universal remedy.

Whether the affected part is internal or external, the earth compress will at once draw out the heat. If the disease is in the chest, the earth compress is naturally put on the chest; in kidney and liver trouble on the region of the kidneys and liver; in diphtheria around the throat, etc.

Since the abdomen is the seat of all diseases, an earth compress on the abdomen is of the greatest advantage in all diseases. This is especially the case in diseases that are not local, but which may be described as a general illness of the system, nervous disorders, melancholy, etc.

The earth compress on the abdomen is of the greatest consequence in reducing fevers, and may, therefore, be relied upon in acute diseases: typhoid fever, scarlet fever, measles, influenza, etc., and in the case of the impairment of the general health.

More heat is, of course, drawn from the abdomen by an earth compress, which remains on the abdomen for several hours, than by the natural bath, which can be taken only for several minutes at a time. But since the abdomen will have to be washed to rid it of the earth after the compress, a natural bath of short duration may always follow the application of an abdominal compress. The bath may, however, sometimes be dispensed with, as I have said before.

One can always become convinced of how much heat the earth compress draws from the body or a wound by occasionally placing the hand over the compress.

It is very grateful to the body to cover it all over with wet earth or wet clay and then lie down in the hot sun. By doing this the skin will not become sunburnt.

Merely washing the body with clay water will prevent its burning during a sun bath. The earth compress may be kept on for several hours, according to circumstances, and may be repeated several times during the day.

In serious cases the compress must be repeated oftener in the beginning. It may also be applied in the evening, on going to bed, and if not uncomfortable, be kept on during the night. In case the compress becomes too heated, it may be taken off and renewed after a time.

Any kind of earth which the region where one lives happens to produce may be used for an earth compress or earth bandage. Clayey earth adheres readily and has some advantages. If obtainable, it is well to use clay.

The earth compress may be relied upon in countless cases that occur in daily life; for swellings, lung troubles, diseases of the throat and larynx, eye and ear troubles, gout and rheumatism, tetter, dandruff, abdominal and sexual complaints, kidney and liver complaints, diphtheria (compress around the throat), for every variety of pain, neuralgia, headache, toothache, etc. It is the surest remedy for soothing PAIN and truly harmless, for it draws out the cause of pain, the foreign matter, and thereby removes the pain permanently.

Just as unnatural means are often employed in the case of inflammations, boils, etc., which, while they affect a cure, are all the more dangerous because they actually drive the foreign matter back into the body, so harmful and dangerous remedies are often used for soothing pain.

Dentists, today often destroy teeth with their pain-killing remedies, which ought in all cases to be avoided. If the toothache can be cured without pulling the tooth, the gain, naturally, is very great. For toothache the earth compress is applied externally at the spot of the pain, on the cheek, the chin, etc. If one application does not stop the pain, the compress must be repeated till the desired effect is produced.

Earth compresses on the neck are of especial advantage in the case of headaches.

Persons struck by lightning, or poisoned by snakebite, or taken dangerously ill otherwise, have been buried in the ground with their whole body excepting the head; or with single limbs, especially the legs and arms; and have thus been quickly healed and saved. Burying of the whole body or single parts in the earth may be done at a proper season of the year in particularly dangerous cases.

In severe cases of cholera or typhoid fever this would be an excellent method. But the earth must not be too dry for this purpose. The great curative effect of the earth becomes apparent when one sees how invigorating and strengthening its influence is upon the affected parts of the body that have been treated with earth compresses, or upon the body or parts of it when buried in the ground. Persons suddenly struck dead have been recalled to life by this latter process.

Burying one's self in the sand in the sunshine is also to be recommended. The effect is heightened by the warming of the sand by the SUN.

But the earth ought always to be applied cold, and must never be ARTIFICIALLY WARMED BY FIRE. In drinking warm water we can at once feel that it has lost its freshness and its invigorating effect. So, also, the water that is used in bathing, and the earth that is used for compresses, lose their real healing and invigorating quality by being artificially warmed. It is indeed possible to dissolve diseased matter and achieve so-called cures with warm, even hot, water (for instance, by hot moor baths). But on the other hand the body is thereby debilitated and very much injured, so that the harm done is in truth much greater than the good. To be sure ,the evil often does not appear immediately, but comes limping on behind later on.

Cold washes, cold douches, and other cold baths directly after the application of warm water or warm earth cannot neutralize the great harm that has been done.

In this place I should once more like to call attention to the injuriousness and disadvantage of hot steam baths.

Earth or clay is also most excellent means for cleansing the skin. Frequent washing and rubbing of the body with clay cleanses the skin perfectly and makes it at the same time smooth and pliable.*