The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Everyone who has the task to heal should acquire a fundamental feeling for the surprising connections between extra-human and intra-human facts. For significant intuitions can emerge from such study, particularly in Materia Medica and therapeutics. To take an obvious example, let me remind you of such substances as Roncegno-water, or Levico water, which are as though compounded by some beneficent spirit—to speak figuratively—preparing ready for use in the world of nature so many diverse ingredients capable of acting favourably within us. We shall later on deal with these matters in greater detail, but if we bear in mind the remarkable manner in which the two forces of iron and copper blend and temper one another in the water from these spas, and the addition of arsenic, as though to make their mutual compensative operation even wider and more firmly based, we must say to ourselves: here in external nature is something just prepared for certain conditions in mankind. Of course it can happen that these substances have an extremely unfavourable effect on certain individual cases. But the general validity of the main principle is shown even in negative cases, and corroborated. It is advisable, especially at the present time, in dealing with these subjects to remember the possibility of meeting and counteracting such morbid symptoms as have not manifested themselves until our age. Do not let us forget that objective observers on all sides are recognising that peculiar conditions are beginning to affect certain regions of the earth's surface and bringing peculiar forms of disease in their wake. And do not let us forget another current development of great relevant interest; even such a disorder as grippe (influenza) has indisputably acquired strange features in its recent form; the power of rousing previously latent sicknesses to which the individual organism has a tendency, but which might otherwise remain hidden throughout life. These latent morbid trends are uncovered, as it were, when the patient is attacked by influenza.

These matters compose a bundle of questions, upon which I will base our next lectures. The most fruitful approach will be from the consideration of another remarkable circumstance, which perhaps only the spiritual scientist can fully appreciate. As you are aware, oxygen and nitrogen are mingled in our atmosphere; they are loosely mingled in a manner which cannot be exactly defined, either in the terms of physics or of chemistry. And we, as men and as earthly beings, are wholly enmeshed in the combined activities of these two elements, oxygen and nitrogen, and one can therefore assume from the outset that there is some significance in the relation of oxygen to nitrogen in our atmosphere, and in their normal ratio.

Spiritual Science shows us this significant fact: every change in the composition of the atmosphere which alters the normal proportion of oxygen to nitrogen, in either direction—is associated with disturbances in the process of human sleep. That leads us to inquire into this hidden relationship more definitely. You know that in Spiritual Science we have found it necessary to state that man consists of the following four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the ego. You know that we have been led by the facts themselves, further, to maintain that when sleep begins ego and astral body separate, in a sense, from the other vehicles, though this separation takes place more in a dynamic sense, and return again when the individual awakes. Thus you must conclude: in the state of sleep there is a bond between the astral body and the ego, and another bond between the etheric and physical bodies; so even in the waking state, we must accept a less intimate connection between astral body and ego on the one hand and etheric body and physical body on the other, than between the ego and astral body or between the etheric and physical bodies. This looser link between the two groups, the upper human entity, ego and astral body and the lower human entity, etheric and physical bodies—is a true mirror-image of the loose admixture of oxygen and nitrogen in the external atmosphere. Both correspond in a remarkable and astounding way. The composition of the external atmosphere is of such a nature as to furnish the ratio for the connection between astral and etheric bodies, and concurrently between their partners, the physical body and the ego.

This will also naturally make us attentive as to how we have to act in regard to the composition of the air, how we must notice whether we are in a position to give men air or whether to deprive them of it. Now you are able to take a more physiological approach, and to note the working of this correspondence. Pass in review all the substances at present known to us, and active in the human organism; and you will find that (with two exceptions) all these are found in combination with other substances within the human organism: as a rule we find compounds and solutions. Two only appear in their pure state within us; these are oxygen and nitrogen. So these main components of the atmosphere play also particular parts within our human bodies. Their interactions form as it were the very core of the substances in us. Oxygen and nitrogen are linked with the functions of the human organism; and they act as the only elements operating in their pure state, and not modified or deflected by other substances combined with them in the human organic sphere. So there is not only great significance in the actual presence of external substances, traceable within the human organism; we must also follow up the manner of their occurrence, and consider whether their operation remains free, or is bound up with something else. For the peculiar thing is that within the human organism, matter acquires special affinities to other forms of matter, and specific kinship. So if we introduce a substance into the organism which already contains a certain other substance, these affinities can become apparent. Follow this up, and you will come to a quite definite revelation, which spiritual science must point out. You are aware that vegetable, animal and human organisms are alike based on proteins, on albuminous substances. You know that, in the terms of contemporary chemistry, the main ingredients of albumen are the four main natural substances, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and, in addition, sulphur, as, so to speak, a homeopathic agent in the operations of the other four.

It is necessary to form an idea of how the internal function of albumen is brought about; how is protein made? Contemporary chemical science must obviously and conformably to its premises reply:—Oh well, any such substance has the configuration proper to its inherent forces. It follows that one identifies things which are actually not at all the same, or that are not similar as much as is assumed. Sometimes a certain dissimilarity is recorded, and in any case the identity is invalid. In consequence of the application of atomistic theory to the structure of albumens, vegetable albumen and animal albumen have been viewed as very much alike, and up to a certain degree at least chemically identical. But that is absolutely not the case. A closer and more exact study of our human organism recognises the fact that vegetable albumen neutralises animal and more especially human albumen; that the two are in fact polar opposites, and that each annihilates in an intimate way the effects of the other. It is strange indeed that we must admit: animal albumen is of such a nature in its functions that these functions are impaired, abolished partially or even wholly abolished, by those of vegetable albumen. And this leads us to the question: Well, what is the exact difference between what appears as albumen in the animal organism or especially in that of man, and what appears as the same substance in the organism of plants? It is in your recollection that I have had frequently to mention the important part played in relation to all extra-telluric meteorological processes by the four organic systems, bladder, kidneys, liver, lungs, and their complement, the heart. Those four organic groups are most important in determining how man is affected by the meteorological happenings in the external world. Now: What is the significance and office of these four systems.

These four organic systems are nothing less than the creators of the structure of human albumen. So we must study them, and not the atomistic and molecular forces in the albumen substance. In our inquiry “Why is albumen what it is?” we must conceive of its internal structure as the resultant of forces emanating from these four organic systems. Albumen can be called the product of this fourfold co-operation. With this we state a remarkable fact in respect of the interiorisation of external forces within man. What contemporary chemistry looks for in the actual structure of the substance in question, we look for and find in the organic systems of the human body. Therefore the characteristic structure of human albumen cannot conceivably exist in the external terrestrial sphere; it cannot remain unless it is under the influence of these four organic systems. In other conditions it is bound to change its structure.

But it is otherwise with vegetable albumen. Vegetable albumen is, so it seems, not controlled by any analogous group of organs, but it is under another influence; namely, of the four elements, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, and also under that of the meteorologically omnipresent mediator between these four main elements, namely sulphur. In vegetable albumen, these four elements dispersing themselves throughout the atmosphere, perform the same office as the lungs, heart, liver and so forth, within man. External nature contains in these four substances the same formative forces as are individualised in the human organism through the four main groups. It is important to remember that in speaking of oxygen, hydrogen and so forth, we should not limit their meaning to the inherent forces and attributes recognised by modern chemistry, but that we should conceive these elements as possessing formative forces, with activities which affect one another mutually, and by which they contribute to the furnishing of the earth sphere. If we consider them separately and in detail, we must identify the external operation of oxygen with the internal operation of the kidney and urinary system. What is done in the outer world, by the formative forces of carbon, we must identify internally with the pulmonary system: not regarding the lungs however as organs of respiration, but as possessing particular formative forces. We must identify nitrogen with the liver system, hydrogen with the cardiac system (see Diagram 22). Hydrogen is indeed the heart of the outer world; and nitrogen the liver of the external world, etc.

It would be well, my friends, for humanity today, not only to let itself be persuaded to recognise these things, but to work them out for itself. For example, in recognising the association of the heart system with the formative forces of hydrogen, you will readily admit the essential importance of hydrogen circulation for the whole upper bodily sphere in man. For with the metamorphosis of hydrogen towards the upper bodily sphere, the lower and more animal region is changed into the specifically human, tending towards the developing of concepts, etc. And I have already indicated that there we shall have to deal with an extra-telluric influence to be identified with the metal lead. You will remember that lead, tin and iron have already been classified as forces possessing special affinities with the upper sphere in man. At the present time there is no great inclination to admit these interrelationships Nor will there be, as yet, much wish to go outwards from man into the external world, recognising the specific working of lead, as something associated with the fact that hydrogen is made ready by the heart, and then serves as carrier for the preparation of the apparatus of thought. Nevertheless the unconscious progress of human evolution is compelling mankind to recognise this fact. For today it is no longer possible to deny that lead plays some role in the external world, even if only from the functional standpoint; as lead has been actually found among the products of transmutation which Röntgenology has discovered; lead has been actually found as a final product formed by way of helium, not with the usual atomic weight, as a matter of fact; but still it has been identified as lead. Furthermore, as lead has been discovered, so shall we also find tin, and iron as well, iron that as the only constituent of external nature, impinges directly upon our human constitution. Surely today we need to give heed not only to the science of Röntgen rays, however wonderful as a guide and finger-post to the cosmos external to ourselves, because it speaks not only of the crude metallic ores within the earth, but of the metal forces playing upon us from the extra-telluric sphere. That must be said nowadays. For the emergence of new types of disease shows the necessity of taking these factors into account.

What interests us here is the fact that the function performed in the external world by carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and their mediator sulphur, is being individualised in man through the four organic systems. Correct estimation of this fact will lead you deep into the core of man. Then you will no longer find it strange to bring the involuntary elements in our nature—i.e., those which seem to be under the control of the spiritual functions—into association with the whole extra-human world. For on the other hand, observe this truth also. Man is so constructed as to have, for instance a certain system of organs which we know as the kidneys. But each of the four systems has an urge to become the whole man: the kidneys have an urgent tendency to become the whole man; the heart has the same tendency, so has the liver, so have the lungs. In order to convince oneself of such facts, it is helpful to turn one's eyes—or rather one's sensitivity—to observe certain workings of extra-human realities in one's being. It is hardly possible to avoid drawing your attention to the borderline where Natural Science passes over Spiritual Science. For, indeed, if you continue your practice both in medicine and in meditation, and learn to put yourself more and more in tune with the life of meditation, feeling yourself as a meditating human being, you will gradually arrive at a concrete and real self-knowledge. Such a self-knowledge is not to be despised if it comes to such positive tasks as the cure of disease! If you attain further progress in meditation you will become aware of things in your own bodies which were originally quite beyond consciousness. You have only to become conscious of this new awareness, in order to learn what it is as yet difficult to mention and describe in public lectures or even before lay audiences, because of the tendency which then arises. I shall presently refer to one of these elements, elementary as it is. But if these matters were to be broadcast indiscriminately in wider circles today, among mankind in its present moral condition, there would at once arise the query: “Well, why are these powers not utilised?” Followed by the conclusion: “Yes, I should have to practise meditation—and I can get the same result more easily by simply incorporating this or that substance.” It is more convenient to diet or inject, than to practise meditation. By taking that course, mankind decides in a certain sense on moral ruin. But with their contemporary moral constitution, people would not hesitate—you will see the core of my argument presently—to reject meditation in favour of some external remedy, which would, we must admit, help them, on the first steps of the road, to results similar to the fruits of meditation. And it is certainly the case that such partial substitutes exist. For example, if you have practised genuine meditation for some time, and are disposed to register its effects, you will observe that you have become aware of the radiating iron forces, just as you are normally aware that you have hands with which you take hold and feet with which you walk. It is indeed the case that the awareness of the iron working comes as clearly as the normal awareness of our legs and arms, or our heads, to move and turn etc. Yes—what emerges is the consciousness of ourselves as a framework phantom of iron. The consequent danger to which I have referred is that most people would reason thus: “So far, so good: then it's possible to augment one's sensitivity to iron, the susceptibility to the iron within one's self, by means of some remedy, that will have the same effect as meditation.” Up to a certain point this is completely accurate. But there is danger in the experimentation on such lines, in order to attain what is termed clairvoyance easily. Such experiments have been made occasionally. If they are made as, in a sense, exploratory sacrifices on behalf of mankind, the case is different, but if they are made out of curiosity, they undermine the whole ethical structure of the human soul. Now Van Helmont was one of the sages who experimented widely and boldly on himself, in this direction, and discovered many things, through such experiments; and you can read these results in his writings, to this day. He differs from Paracelsus; for with the latter one feels that his understanding rose in an atavistic way from within and that he carried elements of the super-earthly world into the ordinary world. Whereas Helmont repeatedly received remarkable illuminations as a result of self administration of various substances. This is shown by the way in which he presents his subject; moreover, I believe he makes quite definite statements to this effect, in some passages. This, then, is the first possible attainment (through meditation); the internal sensitivity for the radiant force of iron, for that unique working which comes forth from the upper bodily sphere, and ramifies into all the limbs. One gets the definite conception—I say expressly the conception—that one is dealing internally with iron, that is with its function and its forces.

In attempting a graphic representation of this iron radiation, I must mention that by its very nature it is not adapted to act beyond the human organism. The feeling persists: what is radiating forth is nevertheless localised within us, and remains so. There is a counteracting force from all sides, which dams and (see Diagram 23) stores up the iron forces. It is as though the iron rayed outwards to the human periphery with positive force; and there met a negative radiance from something which hits back, advancing as it were in concentric spheres. This is what can be perceived; the one element radiating forth and the other coming to hold it up; we therefore feel that we knock against something and cannot pass beyond the bodily surface.

And gradually we realise that the negative and opposing radiance is the force of albumen. Thus the iron introduces into our organism a display of functions which are opposed by all that comes from the four organic systems to which I have already referred. These systems resist the iron rays; and the struggle goes on continually within the organism. This is as it were the first thing which becomes perceptible to the inner sight. When we begin to study the spiritual history of mankind, we can plainly see that the Hippocratic School of Medicine, and even that of Galen as well, still used conceptions which are relics of such internal observations. Galen Was no longer in a position to observe much in this way but he recorded all sorts of traditions from earlier ages, still current in his day. If we can read him aright we shall find that the archaic atavistic medical wisdom, whose decline begins with the advent of Hippocrates, still shows through much of Galen's writings, and is the source of many valuable views on the healing processes of nature contained in them.

In pursuance of these phenomena, we find we must study on the whole these two polarities throughout the organism, these radiations and that which opposes them and dams them up. There is need to keep this distinction in mind, for all that tends to form albumen, in the manner described above, is associated with the damming up action, and all of a metallic nature introduced into our bodies, has to do with the radiating forces. Certainly there are exceptions and characteristic exceptions, but they are so distinctive as to reveal other aspects of this whole amazing complex of forces, assembled from all the ends of the universe and focused in our human organism. In order to comprehend their scope it is necessary to follow up somewhat the indications already given here in outline, which you may work out in detail. Thus, I need only mention this fact: The carbon content of plants—for instance the vegetable carbon already dealt with—is lacking in an ingredient which is generally—practically always—present in animal carbon: that is a certain amount of nitrogen. This is the reason why animal and vegetable carbon react differently especially when exposed to fire. This latter feature in turn, makes animal carbon inclined to play a part in the formation of such substances as gall, mucus, and even fat. This difference in the action of vegetable and animal carbon respectively, draws our attention to the further difference in the action of metals and non-metals in general within the human organism. In other words, the action of the radiating out and the damming up substances.

This polar interaction gives the clue to many important things. We have often had occasion to mention the various periods of human life; the period of childhood lasting till the cutting of the permanent teeth; the period between second dentition and puberty, and then the period from puberty to the beginning of the twenties. These periods are linked with intimate happenings within the human organism. The first period, ending with the cutting of the permanent teeth, means, as I have had occasion to point out, a concentration of the whole organic activity on the formation and insertion of the solid scaffold into the body; this process reaches its culmination in the teeth which protrude from the solid scaffold. Now it is evident that this crystallisation of solid substance within the still largely fluid young human body must have to do with the whole building up of the human shape, especially towards its periphery.

We must attribute much of the result achieved to two substances, which receive far too little attention in their effects within the human organism: these are fluorine and magnesium. In the—so to speak—rarefied form in which they occur within us, both fluorine and magnesium play prominent parts, especially in the process of shape formation in the child, up to the change of teeth. The forming and fitting of the solid framework in the human organism takes place through continuous interaction between the forces of magnesium and fluorine respectively; in this interplay, the forces of fluorine act plastically, mould as a sculptor moulds, fill out contours and bar the way to the forces of radiation, whilst magnesium acts as a radiating force and constitutes the fibres of tissue, etc., into and along which the substance arranges itself. It is not a senseless phrase, but wholly in accord with the course of nature to say that a tooth is formed thus: It is shaped, as far as its circumference and its cement is concerned, by the activity of the plastic artist “fluorine,” and magnesium pours into it the forces which have to be shaped to a plastic form.

So it is necessary to keep even balance between the supplies of these two substances in early childhood, and if this balance and proportion are not achieved, it will always be found that the teeth become defective at an early age. As soon as the first tooth appears, the particular formation of the teeth should be noted carefully, and whether the child develops a weak enamel cover or the teeth are too small and sparsely set—we shall deal with these symptoms in detail, but at present we are approaching the subject gradually—any defects should and can then be counteracted by means of administering either magnesium or fluorine in suitable compounds.

This affords a direct glimpse into the formative process of man. Even in the earliest years of life, there is this interaction between fluorine and magnesium, that is an interaction in which the agents are of a decidedly extra-human character in the constitution of their substance—for during the first years of life, man is mainly a link inserted into the external world. So fluorine comes from the external world, to counteract the centrifugal radiance of the metal.

For the third vital epoch, a similar importance adheres to the even balance between iron and albumen, the whole formation of albumen. If there is not the requisite even balance, and there are not strong beneficial counter-agents against the effects of disproportion between iron and albumen, we have all the symptoms externally typical of anæmia. It simply does not suffice merely to note the presence of this symptom or that; decayed or misshapen teeth which have been directly caused by faulty conditions in early youth, for instance, or the blood chemistry characteristic of anæmia. We must penetrate into the secret depth of the human organism as a whole, if we would understand what exactly happens to man in sickness.

You already know, more or less, the particular metals which share in the upbuilding—the interior upbuilding—of the human organism They do not include—with one exception, namely iron—those to which I have referred as in some way the most important ones: lead, tin, copper, quicksilver, silver and gold are not directly engaged in the functioning of the human organism, but have their part in us, nevertheless. Take, for instance, that substance which contributes to the peripheral formations of the human frame; we refer to silicon, with which I have dealt already. Now the processes within us are not bounded by our skins; man is interwoven with the whole web of universal processes. Just as the substances mentioned above are of significance internally, so also the main metals enumerated here, are effective upon man although external to our organism. The part of the mediator is given to iron. Iron plays the mediating role between the sphere within the boundary of the human skin, and that outside this boundary We may therefore maintain that the whole pulmonary System—“pulmonary man,” possessing the urge to become a whole man—is strongly linked with the whole human relationship to the universal life of nature. If we regard only what becomes visible in dissecting the body, we are taking for the whole, what is only a part. The visible body is not the whole, it is that part of man which is opposed to extra-human agencies; to the operation of lead, tin, copper and so forth, which are external to our bodies. Even if we look at the human organisation only from the point of view of natural science, we must never regard man as bounded by the epidermis. We must take into account not only the workings acting from within, outwards, but also all these workings which give a general direction to his organic processes. That the latter play an important part may be realised in the light of the following facts.

You know that certain substances operate in the human organism simply through being bound up with either bases or acids; or appear, to use the technical term, neutrally in the form of salts. Thus bases and acids act as complexes of antagonistic forces, which neutralise each other in salts. But this is not all. How does this triad, acids, bases and salts, operate within the human system of organic forces? We shall find that all bases have a tendency to support such human processes as begin in the mouth and continue through digestion, i.e., from front to rear; and indeed all other processes with the same line of action. And as the basic substances have to do with this direction, so the acids are equally associated with the reverse. Only in studying the opposition of “front man” to “rear man” one understands the polar opposition of bases and acids. And saline substances stand at right angles to the two opposites, pointing vertically earthwards. All processes directed from above downwards centripetally are those into which the saline element thrusts itself. Thus we must keep these three spatial directions clearly in our minds, if we seek to determine how man enters into the triad, bases, salts and acids. Here again is an instance of the manner in which the purely external chemistry of metals is linked with the physiological, through the observation of man, for here you see clearly the directive forces. Here, too, you have the whole relationship of salt nature to the earth, as well as the direction of basic and acid substances. We can summarise the whole thus. If we imagine the earth's surface, the saline substances tend downwards towards the earth, and bases and acids tend to spin around the earth in circles. And simply by learning something of the spatial directions of the organic functions, we are in a position to intrench upon them. Here an essential curative measure is the external application of remedies, through friction, by means of ointments, and so forth. One must find out what operates in a certain direction after external application. Under certain conditions, the vigorous action of mustard plasters, or of certain metallic ointments—suitably compounded of course—is as effective for the whole organism, as is internal treatment. But—as you will deduce from what has been put before you—we must be careful to choose the right method of application. For it is not at all the same whether the plaster or ointment is applied to this or that part of the body. It is essential to choose the spot of application so as to stimulate counteraction against injurious forces. It is not always the most efficacious way merely to put the remedy directly on to the seat of the pain or irritation.

It is possible that the more materialistic tendency in medicine may assume a more spiritually scientific orientation, in respect of three groups of facts; we shall now consider certain of these groups. The first includes all facts connected with the origin, development and possible cure of tumours. The second includes the so-called mental diseases, and their really rational treatment. And finally there is the field of externally applied remedies, ointments, salves, and so on.

We can hardly hope to reach the understanding of tumorous growths, with their culmination in cancer, by means of merely physical methods, unless the insight given by spiritual science serves at least as a guidance. And contemporary psychiatry is in such a sorry state, mainly because there is no conscious bridge between it and the usual pathology and therapeutics—though such bridges abound everywhere in nature—that it is probable that these two special fields will be the first to approach the standpoint of spiritual science. They will need to mark all that spiritual science can tell them, and even now you have only to refer to my publications, to realise that spiritual science has already told them a good deal. It will be necessary, in fact, to talk of the intervention of the etheric body, within the physical organism.

For indeed no one should merely assert that clairvoyance is needed in order to show how the etheric body acts within the organism. It is possible to see that the etheric body is not active in a certain way—or is not adequately active—through the observation of very many processes which are opposed to the action of the etheric body. In order to obtain valid representations here, we must take into consideration all the manifestations associated with inflammation or developing out of inflammation, and also all that is associated with the formation of tumours, and spreads its destructive activity through the human body. In the case of tumorous growths there is today a very justifiable effort to dispense with the surgeon's knife in the treatment of tumours. This endeavour is, however, blocked and often frustrated by social, especially hygienic, conditions which should, and must, be changed. But we must find a substitute for surgery: both for what it certainly achieves in some respects, and again fails to achieve in others. Doubtless there are many persons who at present advocate operative surgery, for the simple reason that they know of no alternative, but who would be converted immediately if and when the alternative were available.

There is no need for me to analyse the whole nature of inflammatory processes, in their specific forms as affecting the different human organs. All that I can take as already familiar to you. But the unifying process, which is common to all inflammations, is not a matter of familiar knowledge. This unifying common process is perhaps best characterised as follows: in all cases of inflammation, whether very slight or very acute, and leading possibly to ulcers, spiritual science finds that the etheric body of the patient remains as a whole in working order. Thus we may be sure of being able to do something to restore the full efficiency of this etheric body, which has become impaired or impeded in a particular direction; to redistribute its workings, so as to make it a healing source. Our aim is to direct the activity of the etheric body in definite directions, whereas the healthy etheric body acts throughout the organism and permeates it in all directions. It is possible to set up reactive processes—we shall deal with them presently—which have power to stimulate the etheric body in regard to a system of organs in which its activity has become slack; so that, provided the etheric body as a whole retains a certain measure of health, it resumes its universal efficiency in this special direction.

But tumorous formations of every kind are a different matter. They arise primarily from the actual enmity of certain processes within the physical body, against the action of the etheric body; these processes rebel as it were, so that the etheric body ceases to act in certain regions of the physical body.

The etheric body, however, has very great powers of regeneration and the methods of spiritual science reveal that if it is possible to remove the hindrance and to expel the inimical action, the tumour can be overcome. We may lay down the rule that in cases of tumour, it will be necessary to simulate through the forces of nature, the removal of the counteracting physical processes which oppose the etheric body, so that the etheric body may once more extend its working to the region where it had temporarily receded.

This principle is particularly important, let us say, in the treatment of carcinomatous growths. Carcinoma, if objectively studied, shows plainly, in spite of its great diversity of form, that it is essentially a revolt of certain physical forces against the forces of the etheric body. For instance, the characteristic indurations, which are so perceptible in the case of deep-seated carcinomatous growths, and though less perceptible still present when the growths are nearer the surface of the body—these reveal the preponderance and the encroachments, so to speak, of the physical structure over the etheric structure, which should be there in the particular region. Careful study of their contrasting characteristics will lead us to the conclusion that inflammations, abscesses, and ulcers on the one hand and tumours on the other, are polar opposites. Of course, I must remind you that it is quite possible to take a carcinoma situated on or near the surface of the body, for an ulcer, at least in some features. As the similarity may be misleading, we must study more closely the essence of this polarity.

Certain not precisely old but somewhat medieval technical terms are misleading and unhelpful in this respect—and when I use the phrase medieval, I refer not to the Middle Ages but to those times which we have only just passed through. It is not quite correct to refer to tumours as neoplasms. They are “new” only in the trivial sense of not having been there before, but they are not “neoplasms” in the sense of sprouting on the actual soil of the organism, i.e., on its boundary, the skin. But owing to the vehement opposition developing in some special process of the physical body, as against the etheric, the body of man becomes subjected to the outer nature inimical to man; the formation of a tumour provides an easy passage for all manner of external influences; and thus we should not neglect the study of the complementary opposite of this whole phenomenon. For this I refer you to the study of the extra-human world, let us say, to the formation of the mistletoe to begin with.

First of all we must observe the precise manner in which the varieties of mistletoe (viscum) develop on the soil of other plants. But this is not the main factor under consideration. For the botanist, of course, the parasitism of such plants as mistletoe is the essential point. But for the study of the inter-relationships of extra-human nature to man, it is far more significant that the mistletoe as it grows on trees is compelled to follow a different yearly rhythm from that of other plants, its blossoms have been formed before the trees which are its hosts, begin to put forth their leaves in spring. Thus the mistletoe is a kind of winter blooming plant, protecting itself under the shelter of alien foliage, from the extremes of the summer sun's rays, or better, from the light workings of summer; there is something of an aristocratic attitude about the mistletoe. (See Diagram 24). The sun must be taken—in the sense of the XI lecture—as being the representative only of the light workings: but this subject forms a chapter of physics and does not interest us here; it is unfortunately impossible to avoid phrases introduced into our language by an incorrect conception of nature. The whole manner in which the mistletoe attaches itself to other plants in order to grow and thrive is the essential point: it acquires and appropriates particular forces which may be described as follows. Its nature is to oppose all the tendencies of the straight course taken by the organic forces, and to urge towards all that to which the straight course taken by the organic forces is opposed. Let us try to elucidate this by means of a rough sketch, (see Diagram 24) representing an area in the physical body of man which revolts against the whole access of the etheric forces, so that the latter are, as it were, dammed up and stopped and thus what appears to be a “neoplasm” is formed; and the mistletoe counteracts this “pocketing” which has been formed and draws the forces again to the area which they do not want to enter.

You may corroborate this statement by means of a test which can only take place as occasion offers. You can study the tendency of the mistletoe against the straight-lined organising forces, by its effect on the after birth. Mistletoe prevents or delays the emergence of the after birth from the human body, that is to say, it opposes the straight course of the organic process. And that is its most characteristic and significant property, to prevent the normal course of organic forces. But quite the same tendency of opposition is to be found in the mistletoe-effect in general.

The counteraction of mistletoe against the etheric body's refusal to take hold of the physical body may lead one to a certain administration of viscum; it may happen, then, that the physical body is taken hold of too strongly by the etheric body, and convulsions may result. Other cases, on being treated with mistletoe, have the peculiar sensation of falling (vertigo.) And these symptoms are in line with a further pharmaceutical effect of mistletoe, i.e., its stimulation of seminal pollutions.

Thus in all its manifestations, e.g., in connection with epilepsy also, mistletoe works “against the stream” in the organism of man. And this is due, not so much to its parasitism, as to its inherent contrariety: it claims always special indulgencies from nature as a whole. This plant, for instance, will not thrive in the normal course of the seasons, blossoming towards the spring and then bearing its fruit, but during an unusual time, in winter. By so doing, it conserves those forces which counteract the normal course of events. If it were not giving too much offense, one might say that nature had “gone mad” and did everything at the wrong time, in reference to the mistletoe. But this is just what must be made use of, if on the other hand the human organism becomes physically mad, i.e., in formation. Here the need arises to cultivate the understanding of precisely these connections.

Mistletoe provides, beyond question, a means which—when given in potencies—should enable us to dispense with the surgical removal of tumours. The point is only to find out how to treat the mistletoe fruit in combining it with other forces of the mistletoe plant, in order to arrive at a remedy. The peculiar “madness” of this plant is shown in its method of fertilisation, which depends on transport by birds from one tree to another. The plant would become extinct were it not for this service of the birds. In a curious way, the fertilising elements of the mistletoe choose the path through the birds, and are excreted on another tree trunk or branch, where they “take root” anew. All these peculiarities illuminate the whole formative process of the mistletoe. The task is to blend the glutinous substance of the mistletoe in the right way with the triturating medium, and so increase gradually the potency of the viscum substance to a very high degree. Having ascertained the main formula, we should vary it, specialising according to the requirements of this or that organ; and also bearing in mind the particular tree on which the mistletoe grew; I shall make further suggestions in that matter. Another important point will be to arrive at a co-operation of this glutinous substance with certain metallic substances this effect can of course be arrived at also by the metallic ingredients of other plants. But the co-operation, for instance, of mistletoe from an apple-tree, with triturated silver salts, could produce something eminently capable of counteracting all cancers in the hypogastric regions.

These things must be brought forward with caution at the present time. The trend of which they are manifestations is correct, beyond question, and based on well-established research in spiritual science. But on the practical side, we are dependent on the actual blending and preparation of the mistletoe substance, and have not yet sufficient knowledge for successful carrying out. Here spiritual science can only work to our full benefit if it is in continuous contact with clinical experience. And this interrelationship of spiritual science and medicine is made very difficult, for the opportunities for clinical observation and the investigations of spiritual science are kept widely apart by our contemporary social institutions. But just this can show that we can only succeed in these matters if and when both lines of procedure co-operate. Thus it is urgently desirable to collect experience in this direction, for it will hardly be possible to convince general public opinion in these matters, unless you can provide at least verification by external reports from clinics, etc. It is not so much an internal necessity to obtain such evidence; but it is an imperative external necessity.

It is quite possible to prove that the therapeutic effect of the mistletoe is really based on the fact just put before you. It will only be necessary to proceed methodically. For, as I have already pointed out the trunk formations of trees are really practically outgrowths of the proper substance of the earth; they are only little mounds containing still the vegetable element and from them the other essential parts of all trees sprout forth. Now, suppose a mistletoe grows on the tree trunk, it sends its roots earthward, although it takes root on the tree. Now consider those plants which share the mad “aristocraticism” of mistletoe without sharing its “bohemianism” of living parasitically. One can expect to make similar experiences when testing such plants. This is bound to be so. Examine and test winter flowering plants with reference to their contrariety, their anti-tendency against the normal tendencies of the human organism, including, of course, the normal tendency to discase. We must expect the plants which flower “out of season” to have effects similar to that of the mistletoe. Extend the experiments to Helleborus niger, the hellebore, and similar effects will be found. It is, however, necessary to take notice of the contrast, already outlined, between the male and female respectively, Helleborus niger will hardly produce any effect—or any visible effect—if administered to women. But on men it will show appreciable influence in the case of tumours, if it is applied in a higher potency arrived at in the way already suggested for mistletoe.

In choosing plants for therapeutic purposes, it is necessary to bear in mind whether they flower in winter or summer, and whether their inherent effects are more due to their tendency to the earth itself than are those of mistletoe. Mistletoe shuns the earth but hellebore likes the earth and is therefore more in affinity with the male system which is akin to earth itself, whereas the female system of forces, as I have already stated, is more akin to the extra-telluric sphere. These differences must never be underestimated. We must learn to get a certain insight into the processes of nature themselves. This is why I have attempted to characterise with the help of such images as bohemians, aristocrats, madness and so forth: for such concepts are not entirely inadequate in describing the forces in play.

After having formed such concepts one will also find out the characteristic difference between the efficacy of a remedy from outside and one from within. Before considering this difference, we must form certain ideas which will lead us to understand this difference. It will be necessary to study the new forms of disease. already alluded to yesterday, from the therapeutic point of view. One can, e.g., try to expose vegetable carbon to the action of marsh-gas for some time, to immerse it in marsh-gas and then when it is sufficiently saturated, to produce the trituration. One will in this way obtain something which is efficacious when prepared as an ointment, especially in combination with other favorable ingredients. The technical method of such a thing has to be discovered. If this is done and talcum suggests itself in this connection, there is no doubt that an ointment compounded on these principles would have most useful properties. It is, however, necessary to penetrate such a process. We shall not penetrate it until we have cleared our vision by learning to think on sound lines in the matter of psychiatry, as well.

Believe me, the exponent of spiritual science finds the mere phrase “mental disease” [Ed: In German: Geisteskrankheit, spiritual disease.] go against the grain; for it is folly simply to use the expression “mental disease”; the spirit is always healthy, and cannot fall sick in the true sense of the term. To talk of mental diseases is sheer nonsense. What happens is that the spirit's power of expression is disturbed by the bodily organism, as distinct from a disease of the spirit or the soul itself. The manifestations in question are symptoms, and symptoms only.

Now one must sharpen one's eye for the concrete separate symptoms. Perhaps you will be in a position to see the primary tendency or disposition, and then the further development of, for example, a religious mania:—of course the technical terms here are none of them precise. There is great confusion of terminology in this field, but let us for the moment use an accepted term. As I have said, these manifestations are only symptoms. But let us assume that this condition develops—we must be able to form some picture of how it develops. And, having found this picture, we shall require to keep a sharp look-out for any abnormalities in the formative process of the lung of those individuals who display this symptom of “religious mania.” Note; not anomalies in the process of breathing but in the process of lung formation, in the pulmonary metabolism. For even the current term “brain disease” is not wholly correct; “mental disease” is a wholly false and misleading term, and “brain disease” at least half mistaken; for all phenomena of cerebral degeneration are secondary. The primary elements are never manifested in the upper organic sphere, always in the lower. The primary factors always lie in the organs belonging to the four main groups or systems, the liver, kidneys, heart and lung systems. In the case of an individual inclined to those forms of insanity in which all interest in the external world and active life dies out, and man begins to brood and follows delusions, it is before all things necessary to obtain precise knowledge of the pulmonary process. This is extremely important.

Again, take such persons as are conspicuous for what may be termed obstinacy, stubbornness, self-righteousness and all the other facets of a certain conceptual rigidity, a blind sticking to a certain system of concepts; in their case we should try to ascertain the state of the liver process. In such cases, there is always a defect in the internal organic chemism. Even what is commonly known as “softening of the brain” is a secondary manifestation. In all the so-called mental diseases, the primary cause lies in the organic system, although this is often very hard to detect. And for just this reason it is sad to note how ineffective so-called mental and mental and spiritual treatment often proves; so that there is more chance of obtaining a cure in organic diseases through treatment of the mind and spirit, than in the diseases termed “mental.” Yes, we must learn to treat mental diseases with physical remedies. That is a matter of major importance, and the second field in which external medicine will have to let its path be sought and found: the path leading to spiritual science.

The suitable observer in this field will always be the thoroughly trained and competent psychologist. The life of the soul with its immense diversity, with its way of often working by mere indications, is able to reveal very many things and one has to acquire gradually a capacity to observe it. Take one example! Man is so constructed that in respect of his faculties and capacities—including the faculties and capacities based upon the bodily organisation which becomes the implement of the spiritual organisation—he is not all of one piece, not of a single mould. It is absolutely possible for an individual to exhibit qualities which compel us to treat him as mentally inferior, feeble-minded: nevertheless the same person may utter things—which are full of life and wit to the point of genius. That is quite possible. And why? because of the extreme suggestibility associated with certain types of mental inferiority; a suggestibility open to all the mysterious influences of the environment and reflecting them as a mirror. In the field of pathological-cultural history one can make the most interesting observations. In giving the results one naturally need not mention names; to refrain may be to undermine confidence in the statements, but it is not well to mention names. Especially in the profession of journalism it happens that mentally inferior people may have success because their mental inferiority enables them to record the opinion of their time, rather than to maintain their own restricted view. The opinion of the time is mirrored. For this reason, the writings of mentally inferior journalists are much more interesting than that of strong-minded, independent members of the profession. The former reveal to us much more what mankind thinks than those who form their own views. The result is—it is only an extreme case but it often occurs—a masking of the true nature of the case; one fails to recognise an actual mental inferiority, because one is faced with utterances which may even bear the stamp of genius. In the course of everyday life this does not much matter, for why should not our newspapers be composed by mental weaklings—provided, of course, that their “news” is good! But in more extreme cases, the borderline may easily be crossed and definite morbidity result; and in such cases the healing profession needs an unbiased—a very unbiased-eye for the diagnosis of conditions which come under the classification of psychiatry. Here we cannot always judge from the masks in which the soul's activity disguises itself; but we must probe for deeper and less obvious symptoms. And error here is the more possible, because it is of prime importance for diagnosis, not only to note whether the individual gives utterance to clever thoughts, but to observe (granted that such be the case) whether there is a tendency to repeat these clever thoughts more often than the context requires. The “how” of expression of thoughts is important. If thoughts are very often reiterated, or on the other hand omitted, so that there is nothing consecutive or continuous, we have symptoms of far greater importance than if the thoughts expressed are either intelligent or stupid. It is possible to be a very intelligent person and yet at the same time stupid: physiologically stupid of course, not pathologically so. It is possible to utter clever ideas, and yet tend to “mental” disease so-called, and even suffer from it. This condition can be perceived sooner by the following symptoms than by any others; firstly the omission of thoughts and secondly their frequent repetition. The individual who suffers from frequent repetition, has always certain organic tendencies associated with a defective formative process of the lungs. The individual who suffers from omission of thoughts has always certain tendencies associated with defective function of the liver process. The remaining manifestations stand midway between.

These conditions may be studied from life itself. Take such substances as have already established themselves as either foodstuffs or luxuries, but not, as yet, as therapeutic remedies in the accepted sense of the term. Amongst them I have already often had occasion to mention coffee—at least in certain circles—as possessing a very definite effect on the whole symptomatic process of the soul. Now it is inadvisable to put one's trust in such effects—for if they are habitually relied on they merely make the soul inert; but they certainly exist. It is quite possible to supplement a lack of logic in thought by means of stimulation through coffee: that is to say, a certain amount of coffee will stimulate the organism, so that it yields more forces of logic, than without coffee. Therefore it should be a part of the habits of journalism—which are based on accepted opinions—to absorb large amounts of coffee in order not to have to gnaw their pens too much in order to link up their thoughts!—So much for one part of the phenomenon.

The habit of tea drinking, on the other hand, helps us to avoid linking up pedantically one thought to another like a professor. For certain professions which are now in decline, but in their ancient state were based on wit, there could be given a remedy which would make people extremely witty—not, indeed, internally witty but quite externally through a beverage: namely tea. Just as coffee is the drink for journalists, tea is a remarkably effective drink for diplomats, materially conducing to the habit of making aphoristic remarks and hints, which create the impression of intelligence and wit.

These matters are needful to know, for if we know how to estimate them aright, and possess the requisite ethical attitude, we recognise that in any ethically responsible life, intelligence and efficiency must be promoted by other means than this or that form of diet. But in order to recognise certain connections in nature, such knowledge is very important. There are also significant cultural aspects. For example, we may refer to the very small amount of sugar consumed in Russia up to the present time, as contrasted with the lavish consumption of sugar in the Western world of the English speaking peoples. And we may conclude that (if and when soul development does not neutralise physiological effects) the mental behaviour of men bears the definite imprint of the substances they eat or drink. Thus the Russian in a way gives himself up to the surrounding world and has a comparatively slight ego-feeling, unless it is artificially-supplemented by some theory; these attributes being associated with their small intake of sugar. The Englishman, on the other hand, has a strong feeling of his own Self, and the organic basis for this quality is associated with a large intake of sugar. Nevertheless in such cases, the fact of taking in is less important as an indication, than the urge for a certain diet. For the fact of habitual consumption of any special food develops from the urge and therefore the urge is the main factor to be remembered.

Finally; if you fully realise that the real origin of the so-called mental or spiritual diseases is to be sought in the lower organic systems of man, you will be made unmistakably aware of interactions within man which cannot be neglected in the practice of pathology or therapeutics. These interactions between what I have termed the lower and the upper man, must be considered always and equally, both in pathology and therapeutics; otherwise it will not be possible to form an opinion of the manner in which external influences will affect the patient. For instance: there is a very great difference between the application of heat or of water to the head, or to the feet respectively. But we can find no fundamental principle here, unless we are aware of the great differences of function in the two bodily spheres of man; the upper and the lower. For this reason, we will now proceed to discuss external influences affecting man, so far as is possible within the scope of these lectures.

I have carefully considered for some time whether or not to include today's chapter in this lecture series, for its subject matter can only be presented in outline. But I have decided to include it, even if only to prove once more how greatly such things may be misunderstood. For on the one side, some people have long endeavoured to prove that Anthroposophy and its doctrines are muddled nonsense. Recently, however, it appears to have dawned on some other people that this opinion can no longer be held, but that Anthroposophy appears to correspond with the results of additional research into the ancient mysteries. So the attack is now from the other side: I am represented as a betrayer of the mysteries. Thus people can always find a possibility of accusation and attack, whether on one score or the other. If they can no longer state that these things are false they can at least maintain that it is extremely wrong to say them.

I must first of all repeat that the exclusively physical study of man only surveys a part and a comparatively small part of human nature This is for the simple reason that man contains the etheric body, the astral body and the ego, which are constantly working upon and moulding the physical organism, yet entirely inaccessible to external physical judgment—I use this term with intention and reference to what follows. At the same time it is not impossible for the human being to educate himself and evolve (granting steadfast effort) to the point of acquiring and assimilating a certain degree of clairvoyance into the operation of intellect and judgment. This will not yet mean the attainment of a proper clairvoyance associated with definite visual images, but it will be possible to attain a type of judgment capable of strong and reliable coincidence with the results of clairvoyance.

Now consider this. Let us begin with the ego—as it were the opposite extreme from the physical. The ego works upon the other human vehicles, and at the present stage of evolution its main sphere of action is on the physical body. In mankind today the ego has as yet comparatively little capacity for governing the etheric body. During childhood, it has such power strongly but unconsciously. This ceases later on. Only in those who retain in later life a vivid imagination or fantasy, is there a strong ego influence over the etheric body. In general, however, in all persons who develop their intelligence as distinct from their imagination and become dry intellectualists, there is a strong ego-influence over the physical body and only a slight influence over the etheric.

If you try to visualise this influence over the physical body, you will not need to go much further in order to picture in your minds as the work of the ego an intricate framework extending throughout the bodily organism; a delicate, weblike scaffolding. This scaffolding in the physical body, like a kind of phantom of man, is always present. We human beings carry with us through life, a framework imprinted into us through our ego-organisation; its structure is most delicate, and indeed it is the forces of the etheric body that insert it into the physical. But in the course of our lives, we gradually forfeit the power of consciously contributing to this structure. Only in people with creative imagination we find a half-conscious, dreamlike remnant of such power.

As you will have easily conceived, this weblike framework which the ego “timbers” into the organism of man is actually in some sense a “foreign body.” And there is a constant tendency to resist it. Every night during sleep, the human organism seeks to tear down this structure. Although we remain unaware of it in everyday waking life, do not let us forget this tendency. For this continuous tendency on the part of the ego-framework to break up, to fall to pieces in the organism, is the secret and permanent source of inflammatory conditions.

The concept of this kind of phantom-structure inserted by the ego into the human organism is of great importance, as is the realisation of the constant organic defensive reaction against it as a “foreign body,” and its continuous tendency to break up within the physical organisation. You will arrive at a visualisation which helps your judgment if you study psycho-physiologically the organisation of the human eyes. For all that takes place as between the eye itself and the external world, that is to say, between the soul and the external world by means of the eye, represents par excellence the erecting of this scaffold. There is an intimate interaction between the ego-framework proper and the results of the interplay of the eye with the world around it. I have often had occasion to study this interaction of eye and ego, in blind-born persons and in those who had lost their sight. Such cases reveal very plainly the mutual reactions of that phantom—normal to most people—which becomes incorporated in the organism by the mere fact of sight, and the other phantom which is the result of the ego's activity in the organism.

Suppose that an attempt be made to represent all this in graphic form. Through sight, through the visual process, a phantom is incorporated into the organism: and the other ego-structure lies a little deeper within, a little more inward. (See Diagram 25. Yellow portion and white portion.) The latter, more deep-seated structure is so constituted as to be perceptibly tinged with physical forces. It is an almost physical phantom that the ego inserts and erects; a real scaffold, but what the eye transmits is still etheric. And here we come to a striking difference between short-sighted and long-sighted people. In people of short sight, these two frameworks approach one another; the portion coloured white in the diagram moves inwards, closer to the yellow. In long-sighted persons, on the other hand, the white framework moves outwards, away from the yellow. In fact, if you study the organisation of the eye in any human being you will have the material for a sound judgment of the person's etheric body; the etheric body which is so like what I have just termed a framework. You cannot better train yourself to divine something of the nature of an individual etheric body, than by attentive study of the organisation of the organ of vision. Having once grasped this, you will find that the rest will be easy. Acquire the habit of observing whether individuals focus their gaze at a distance or near by, and let this impression work on you; and you will cultivate a sensibility to the perception of the etheric body. Call meditation to your aid, and it will no longer be so difficult to ascend from a devoted attention to the effects of the eye-organisation to the contemplation of the etheric body itself.

This will convince you that the process linked with the eye organisation is continuous, and it is the normal form of a process which may appear in an abnormal form. It is normal in the life of everyday, and it has its abnormal counterpart in cases of inflammation, indeed in all inflammatory conditions. So that you are justified in stating that a too vigorous development of this framework (which in the physical body is similar to the etheric) give rise to inflammations and to all the sequelæ of the inflammatory states. You can confirm your convictions in this matter by the external use of an animal product, formic acid. The best manner of studying the application of this substance is in its highest possible dilution, e.g., sprinkled in bath water. If the mildest dilution of formic acid is made to work on the human being through bath water, you will cause a consolidation of the ego-scaffold coloured yellow in the Diagram. (See Diagram 25). This consolidation takes place because by means of the formic acid the ego is forcibly compelled to approach the framework so that it becomes penetrated with the ego. And thus it is possible to counteract the tendency to inflammation for the framework only inclines to disintegrate in the inflammatory process if it is not properly permeated by the ego and restrained by it; for the ego and this framework belong together. They may be brought together by the use of bath fluid, but in extremely high dilution—for this stimulates the peculiar properties of formic acid.

A certain amount of attention to symptomatology is necessary, if you wish to enter into these matters. For instance: observe carefully in treating inflammatory conditions, whether or not they appear in persons with a concurrent tendency to obesity. For it is only in such cases, where you find both sets of symptoms, the tendency to inflammations and also to adipose deposits, that any real benefit can accrue from the external formic acid treatment just described. You will always attain extremely good results, if you have sound reason to believe in the disintegration of the ego-framework—which may be deduced from other symptoms, to be described presently—and if there is a simultaneous tendency to excessive fat.

For Spiritual Science is aware of something that shocks and offends contemporary mankind in its simple enunciation. It knows that what has to happen in the human organism, in order that the eyes shall be formed, and formed in the manner indispensable to human evolution—of course in the long run of this evolutionary history—is really a permanent process of inflammation, which is continually transferred into the normal and does not break out. Think of the processes inherent in inflammations, think of them held up, slowed down, and telescoped together, so to speak, and you will have before you the formative process of the human eye in the human organism. You are even able to obtain an idea of individual tendency to inflammatory conditions, or the reverse, by looking at the person's eyes. It is possible to see this if one trains one's judgment. Indeed the experiences we may meet with regard to human sight are closely linked with the observation of the etheric body of mankind. In referring to the existence of the etheric body and its conscious perception, we must distinguish two methods of approach. There is of course that inner process which leads to genuine clairvoyance, by way of meditation. And there is also an educative process working from outside. If we take the trouble to see and estimate the processes of nature aright, we shall acquire a visualisation of these things which is based on judgment. The actual organs of clairvoyance must be developed from within; but judgment is developed in contact with the world outside ourselves. If we develop the finer shades of judgment in the external world, this highly evolved judgment will come towards that more intimate process which passes outwards from within, in meditation.

Perhaps some of you will ask—and quite justifiably ask—“Well, but cannot all these manifestations and reactions be observed in the animal world?” My friends, the fact is simply that the things that concern man cannot be found through the study of animals. I have often stressed this difference in public lectures, and should like to emphasise it still more here. People are in the habit of thinking: an eye is an eye, an organ is an organ, lungs are lungs, a liver is a liver, and so forth. But that is not so, the eye in man is the organ which also exists in the animal world as eye, but with a modification: it is changed by the fact that in man the ego has been incorporated. The same is the case with all other organs. And for the occurrences within the organs, especially in cases of disease, the permeation by the ego is of much greater importance than what happens in the animal's organs, where there is no such permeation. This essential difference is still far too little regarded and men persist in off-hand pronouncements of this sort: “here I have a knife; well, a knife's a knife, isn't it? One knife is the same as another, so both, being knives, must have the same origin.” But suppose that one of these “identical” knives is a table knife, the other a razor. In that case the simple proposition that “a knife's a knife” becomes untenable. It is making the same mistake to explain the human eye and the animal eye by the same methods and terms. It is simply nonsense to seek for the explanation of anything in its mere external aspect; moreover such an approach is entirely barren as a foundation for study. Study founded on animal “material” simply hinders the adequate study of certain conditions in mankind; for it is only possible to form a just estimate of the dissimilarity here, by realising that in man it is precisely the peripheral organs which are the most permeated by the ego and moulded by it.

In a completely different way is the human ear formed. It is possible to train oneself to a discriminative grasp of the human ear, just as in the case of the eye. And in this manner we then approach the clairvoyant apprehension of the etheric body. We can train ourselves to understand the fact that the ear is incorporated into man as it is in animals, but that its structure is permeated by the human ego. If with this faculty we study the formation of the ear we shall find that it is connected with a process in the deeper interior of the human organism, in the same manner as the eye formation of the etheric body is connected with some more peripheral process. Thus we arrive at the insight that the ego is concerned in the formative process of the ear, just as in that of the eyes. The ego incorporates yet another framework into the organism, differing somewhat from that already described; and akin to this framework is the whole process lying at the base of the ear formation. In order to keep these separate frameworks distinct, I will colour the one just mentioned blue; it lies more inward than the yellow, and it extends less into the limbs, so that if it could be extracted and revealed to the light of day, it would have only stumps in the place of arms and legs. Thus we might say that this framework in its formation has remained at the stage of childhood. It is also much less differentiated towards the head than is the other one. But we shall find that it corresponds to the basic principle underlying the formative forces of the human ear and the whole process of hearing. This latter principle I will color violet in the Diagram. (See Diagram 25). This framework has also its specific characteristic in the human organism. It can become abnormal if the ego works too strongly; i.e., if its activity works too much internally. We have already touched on the reverse case, when the ego's activity is too strong in the periphery.

The following suggestions may be of use, in the study of the problem before us. Again take the external symptoms as a starting point: consider cases where the tendency is to become more or less thin, and never put on fat. In these cases you see before you human beings in whom the ego works too strongly internally, and intensifies this latter framework. This framework, however, has a different tendency from the other one: the tendency to internal exuberance. The first framework inclines to disintegrate or to splinter itself; the last to exuberate internally.

The treatment of this scaffold can proceed on two lines. Firstly, it can be so developed that exuberance does not ensue, because the ego as it were, shimmers out of it. For both exuberance and disintegration of the scaffolds always arise from the inadequate permeation by the ego, from it shimmering away from it. If the ego does this and at the same time is strong enough to keep itself at work within the organism, there arise certain consequences for the soul and the body. The consequence for the soul is hypochondria; for the body, constipation and similar phenomena.

This is the one aspect. On the other hand it may be that the ego is too feeble to hold itself together when it glitters away from the scaffold, that it collapses in its essential quality as ego; and not owing to the faults in its physical vehicle, the scaffold, but to its own. Consider how strange this is: the ego is so feeble that its debris as it were become embedded in the organism. And this occurs because individuals of this particular constitution, when they fall asleep, are not able to take with them the whole of what shimmers and glitters away. Thus the debris remains within the body and proliferates as a sort of soul-like ego. And this type of individual constitution with these exuberations of the soul-like ego, which develop especially during sleep, is one that inclines to tumorous formations. This process is of infinite significance. Persons with tumorous tendencies are those who do not sleep properly, for the reason that remnants of the ego remain after they fall asleep. These remnants and debris are the real excitants of tumours, including malignant growths, and these growths are linked up with the whole complex of symptoms which I have just enumerated. It is a fact that we are faced on the one hand by hypochondria and constipation, and on the other hand, if the organism cannot help itself by making the individual suffer from hypochondria and constipation, it exuberates inwards and the most malignant growths appear. We shall deal with this subject further, but for the moment we are considering merely the general principle.

You can reach the conviction that this is how things stand from a study of the external side, in indications given in a preceding lecture. As I have already remarked, it is possible to deal with the formative tendencies to inflammation by the use of very highly dispersed animal formic acid, in bath water. That is an external application; now try the same substance, suitably diluted, internally, and observe the effects it will have on thin people. It will disperse the tumorous tendencies in thin persons, and counteract the formation of growths.

These matters must be observed macroscopically and they afford striking proof of the need to acquire this macroscopical view. One must learn to have a comprehensive vision of the whole stature and physique of a man, and the many marks of his individual constitutional type, and combine this with all the phenomena emerging in sickness. Thus we shall acquire also a sense of how to divide the treatment into external and internal respectively. To test and trace the effects of the same substance by the two different routes, will furnish most interesting information. Here again, spiritual science reveals something extremely enlightening in respect of these two parts of the organism. It knows that all the formative forces of the human ear are at an early stage on the same path of development as those forces which, finally, when they are allowed to go too far lead to the formation of internal tumours.

The fact that we have a human auditory organ, is due to a process which is kept normal because the tumour-forming force has emerged in the right place. The ear is an internal tumour extended into the region of the normal. Just as the evolutionary process of the eye's formation is akin to the process of inflammation, so that of the ear's formation is allied to the tumorous. It is indeed a wonderful relationship between disease and health in man; for the processes are the same in both, only in the case of normal health they proceed at the right rate, and in the case of disease at an abnormal rate. If the inflammatory process were abolished in nature, no living creature would be able to see. Living creatures have the power of sight only because the inflammatory process is inserted into the whole of nature. But it has a certain velocity, a definite tempo. If it proceeds at a wrong speed then the abnormal process of inflammation results. Similarly, the process of tumorous formation has its significance in nature, at the right rate of development. If it were abolished no being in the world would be able to hear. If the rate is wrong, there results all that happens in cases of myoma, carcinoma, sarcoma. We will deal with this later.

Those who are not in a position to find and recognise the healthy counterpart of every morbid process, cannot understand its place within the human organisation. For the human organisation is founded on the fact that certain processes dispersed throughout the periphery of nature become interiorised and centralised in man.

Many things are discussed in our physiological text books: we should fix our attention elsewhere, on subjects whose existence is admitted but whose significance is constantly under-rated. Here is one instance. You are able to observe—quite macroscopically and as it were in a commonplace way—that the epidermis covers the human body, and has various inward folds or pockets; and its continuing membrane lines the parts situated to the interior. This is very important—the reversal of functions, as, e.g., we find it in passing from the cheeks and the external parts of the face, over the edge of the lips to the interior. There indeed one finds, in the external formation of man, the vestige of the process which where all development really proceeds by means of folding inwards and invaginations. In following up the differences in the reaction of the upper epidermis and the internal mucous membrane to preparations of formic acid, and fully realising the delicate differences in these results, one would reach tremendous results. For all the facts I here set before you are really nothing but specialisations of the elementary structural principle indicated. The study of these facts will bring before you the whole polar opposition of that external lining (also etherically) of the human organism and that which goes inside and becomes central in the same organism.

This is of importance in the following. To what corresponds the second phantom indicated in the rough sketch? (See Diagram 25). The blue phantom is that physical framework within the organism, which tends to exuberate unduly. Its normal form is associated with the formation of the ear. Educate yourselves, train yourselves in the study of man so far as to have regard to this ear organisation and especially its interiorisation, and at the same time to the characteristics of the organ of sight. Then remember that the process of sight occurs in the etheric, the process of hearing in the air. This is a considerable difference. All that lies comparatively low in the ascending scale of ponderable and imponderable is associated and linked with the more deep-seated organs and functions in the interior of man's organism. All that is more akin to the etheric and imponderable, is situated towards the surface and periphery.

The outlines coloured violet (See Diagram 25) define nothing less than that which lives in the human astral body. If you train your power of judgment, through the study of the ear, for the observation of man, you get a kind of substitute or preliminary apperception for the clairvoyant vision of the astral body. To learn to observe sight is training for the observation of the etheric body. To learn to observe hearing is training for the observation of the astral body.

The most interesting observations can be made in persons who have been deaf from birth or have lost their sense of hearing; deeper connections of nature are then revealed. I suggest that you should try to study children who have been born deaf: if they had not been born with that defect, they would develop the most terrible tumours even at that early age. We stand here before outlets supplied by nature itself, and they are rooted not only in the single individual organisation between birth and death; but they reach out into and must be understood from the repeated earth lives in which the compensation is brought about. If we follow up these phenomena beyond a certain point, we shall arrive at some apprehension of repeated lives on earth.

If you attempt to stimulate the peripheral areas in man, you will reinforce what has been dealt with in explaining the relationship of the ego to its framework. If you find it necessary to reinforce the human ego, there is a choice of methods; therapeutic or educational. Wherever it is possible to observe a tendency to inflammation, you will find that it will be necessary to re-invigorate the ego's activity in the individual. If this be done, the ego will insert itself in the proper way into its phantom, its framework; for this framework will not disintegrate where the ego adequately takes hold of it.

An appreciable reinforcement and stimulus to this activity of the ego may be obtained, e.g., by baths containing a very finely distributed solution of rosemary—that is, of the juices extracted from the leaves of the rosemary. This solution stimulates the periphery to such a degree that the ego can act and function better in that which approaches man through the finely distributed rosemary juice. The results are quite remarkable.

Now let us consider the human eye, and its specific insertion into the human organism. The process of sight depends on the power of the human ego to penetrate this isolated part in our organism. There is very little of the animal process in the eye, the sense of sight depends on the fact that man with his soul and spirit nature penetrates a region which has ceased to be animal; so that man can identify himself with the external world, not only with his internal processes. If you identify yourself with a muscle, you identify yourselves from inside, with the formative process of man. But if you identify yourself with the eyes, you really identify yourself with the external world. For this reason, I have already called this organ a gulf which the external extends physiology to neglect the facts, thereby engendering those foolish fairy stories of “subjectivity” and so forth. For it is the fashion today to ignore the fact that “objectivity” is intruded upon us and that within this “objectivity” we share in a part of the processes of the external world. For the last century and a half, every sort of sensory physiology has been founded upon subjectivity because there has been no inkling of the entry of the external world into these organic gulfs, by which we participate, through our senses, in the processes outside ourselves. To understand this rightly means also to understand the action of some foreign substance in this fine dispersal.

Take the human skin, and its pores and all the processes linked with the pores. (See Diagram 26). Sprinkle very mild dilutions of rosemary juice in a bath, immerse the patient in it and you will not be surprised to know that a sensory interaction is set in train between the skin and the minute drops of the Rosemary juice. Through this stimulation, an effect is produced upon the sensory process. This stimulation of the sensory process works on the human ego and it becomes more closely inserted into its framework. A further benefit may accrue from the same method, if it is used in time and not postponed till too late. If the skin of the head is exposed to the stimulation of diluted rosemary juice, you may be able to arrest the peripheral process of loss of hair. Only, of course, it must be applied in the correct manner. Well, there again you have something active on the surface and periphery of the human organism.

Let us suppose now, that the collaboration of the ego with the human organisation suffers a rupture from the outside world. The ego is, of course, not only a point, but a point active around itself; and this working abroad signifies the formative force of the whole human organisation; the ego-organising force spreads throughout the human organisation, permeating it throughout. Let us suppose that an external injury is inflicted on some area, interrupting this mutual action of ego and human organisation; in such cases it will be necessary to attract to this place something springing from the astral organisation (which stands a step below the ego-organisation); something which, working from out of the astral organisation, may so permeate the human organism as to enable the ego to develop its curative forces at the seat of the external injury. The astral body as I have indicated (See Diagram 25) lies nearer the centre of the total organism. Call it to your aid; not this time by means of immersion in any bath, but by a compress of arnica in woolen cloths—a proper arnica compress. The application of arnica compresses to any sprain or dislocation or similar lesion ‘ wherever the injury may have been inflicted—which impairs the efficiency of the ego's function, summons the astral body from inside; calls to it to come to the aid of the ego, and has a compensating effect on the peripheral area.

In these phenomena we have a standard for comparison of the different substances available in the external world. They may have a great tendency towards expansion, and thus be of benefit to the peripheral regions, if administered in baths, for the support of the ego's action. Or again, they may belong to the group which includes especially arnica and are thus indicated when we wish to summon the astral body and draw on its power for the indirect support of the ego.

It is impossible to understand the operation of such substances except as summoners of help from the ego and astral body. To recognise this principle must be indeed fundamental for a theory of therapeutics. both for internal and external treatment.

My starting point today will be a comment made to me from a very competent quarter, to the effect that the present course of lectures are among the most difficult to comprehend of all lectures presenting the anthroposophical point of view. And within certain limits this must certainly be admitted; at the same time, our critics must allow that this can hardly be otherwise. The undeniable accuracy of this criticism should teach us a very great deal. Take an illustrative case, or rather two cases, one of everyday occurrence, the other more remote from the experience of contemporary civilisation. The first case is the following: our contemporary critics are certainly entitled to complain that our considerations here set out are difficult to understand; but the blackbird does not find them difficult—but easy and a matter of course. And this bird gives the most practical proof of its easy understanding. For the blackbird is not exactly an ascetic and therefore it occasionally devours garden spiders. And when feelings of discomfort begin—for the discomfort is soon considerable in such circumstances—and a black-henbane plant is near at hand, the blackbird makes a straight line for the henbane, and seeks the appropriate remedy. And it certainly is a remedy for if there were no henbane available, the blackbird falls into convulsions and dies in the most violent paroxysms. If the plant is near at hand, the bird is saved from a painful death by its own protective instinct which makes it pick and devour the remedy. This is the everyday occurrence which furnishes an illustration.

And the more remote instance has substantial similarity with the case of the blackbird and henbane. Mankind must have developed certain protective and remedial instincts at a very primitive epoch, and these instincts must have supplied some of the contents which were more or less concentrated in the Hippocratic School of Medicine. Let us consider in the light of the criticism quoted at the beginning of this chapter, the wisdom of the blackbird—or of other birds, who act in the same manner under similar circumstances. What really happens if a blackbird devours a spider? The spider is in its whole organisation very much interwoven with certain cosmic interactions outside the earth; the creature's bodily structure, the shape of its limbs and characteristic markings are due to this involvement in extra-telluric processes, so that—if I may so express the facts—the spider has much planetary life: yes, extra-telluric planetary life the garden spider bears within him. Now the bird has not attained such a degree of kinship and sharing of planetary experience; but has removed its share more to the interior of its organism. When the bird swallows the spider, the internal planetary forces begin to stir. These planetary forces which still have the urge towards assuming shape tend to permeate the body of the bird which has to struggle against them. For from the moment of devouring the spider, the blackbird in its inner tendencies becomes a replica of extra-telluric life. Therefore the bird has recourse to the appropriate medicinal plant, which has become similar to the terrestrial sphere, as contrasted with the planetary in two respects; both by its growing upwards from the soil and by its retention of a substance which it cannot wholly work up under the planetary influence but stores up as a poison. The bird seeks help from the henbane. And why? Because in the very moment that the poison begins to work, the working calls into activity the defensive and protective instinct, the instinctive awareness of injury passes over into the instinct of defence. And so, in this phenomenon we have a very plastically evolved development of what we ourselves do, if a fly settles on our eyelid and we instantaneously close our eye and brush it off with our hand, by a simple reflex action.

We may learn a very great deal from these instinctive actions of animals and plants. Their observation will help to cure us of another error; namely the conviction that everything deserving the name of intelligence or reason has its seat in the skull only. Intelligence and reason hover everywhere, so to speak, for the bird's instinct for injury and self-protection affords a quite intelligent behaviour. External reason and external intelligence sharing in this working of the external powers. We share in it, we do not contain it within ourselves. To say we do so is nonsense, but we participate in it. The bird does not yet participate in it in such a way as to appropriate the instincts for injury or protection in a special portion of the body, namely the brain; birds' understanding operates more through their pulmonary system than ours—for mankind understands through the head system, and the defensive instinct leads the bird through the pulmonary system to the henbane or Hyoscyamus, because the creature thinks less in its periphery than at the centre of its being. Mankind has reft the power of thought away from lungs and the rhythmic system. Later on perhaps we may consider our human instruments of thought in more detail. But it is beyond question that we no longer think so centrally—that is with heart, lungs and so forth, in unison with the cosmos, as birds still think. These are aptitudes that we must re-acquire. And if you ask: Who has expelled the last vestige of those instincts which link us to the whole of nature? The reply must be: the education given us at school and at the university—for both of them and all that is connected with them are eminently suited to uproot the living together of man with the totality of nature. They act in a one-sided manner, promoting a refined intellectuality on the one side, and a refined sexuality on the other. The force which was in existence centrally in primeval mankind, is driven apart in modern man towards these two polar opposites.

To find the way back to a right and sound understanding of the world will be the criterion as to whether we in our pursuit of science become sound again. With such a sound pursuit of science many a thing will have to be studied which at present alas is studied only with unsound methods of pursuit.

Let us now turn to the possibility referred to yesterday of studying man in such a way that we get some hint of the curative process. In archaic times this was a highly developed instinct. When primitive man saw anything abnormal in man he was at the same time led to the healing process. Modern mankind has lost these capacities, and therefore only very rarely reaches by intuition what ancient mankind reached instinctively. But that is the course of evolution, from instinct through intellectualism to intuition. And both physiology and medicine are among the subjects most grievously affected by a development on exclusively intellectualist lines; in the atmosphere of intellectualism these can thrive least of all. Take a concrete example, that of a sufferer from diabetes. What does he represent in his diseased development? We can only judge these cases aright, if we know that they arise from a weak ego, an ego-organisation insufficiently strong for the dominance of the process of sugar formation. It is a matter of correctly interpreting the phenomena. It would be wholly wrong to suppose that the passage of sugar out of the organism indicates too strong an ego. It is just the contrary it means that the ego does not take adequate part in penetrating the organism with the necessary supply of sugar. Such is the essence of the diabetic disturbance. And therewith is associated all that can promote diabetes. We may perceive initial symptoms, so to speak, of this complaint, in those who eat too much sweet food, and then drink alcohol. But that is only all initial “touch” which may pass off and only serves to show that in such cases the ego weakened and its power to control the necessary natural process which regulates the excretion of sugar, is impaired. Furthermore, we are led to consider all the elements contributing to the diabetic tendency, and we are confronted by a concept that has hardly appeared as yet in these discussions, though often in the questions sent up to me, and that will occupy more of our time in the latter half of this course. For all matters raised in question papers will receive attention, but the ground has to be prepared. I refer particularly to the concept of hereditary affliction, which plays a prominent role in diabetic cases.

And let me say at once that an hereditary affliction is especially effective in the case of a feeble ego. We can always trace a connection between a feeble ego—or let us say an ego not adequately in control of all its complexes of force—and the liability to suffer from hereditary taints. For if we all had an equal liability to suffer in this direction—well we should all be perceptibly tainted with morbid inheritance. The fact that we do not all do so, in equal measure, is in the main because an efficient ego-function helps to make those who enjoy it exempt.

Furthermore, we must not overlook the psychological causes frequently present, whether in a mild or pronounced form, in cases of diabetes; nor forget that in excitable individuals, excitements may be connected with the beginning of diabetes. Why does this happen? The ego is feeble; and because it is feeble it limits its sphere of action more to the periphery of the organism and develops strong intellectual capacities through the brain. But it is incapable of penetrating the inner recesses of the organism especially those regions in which albumen is treated and transformed, where the vegetable albumen is metamorphosed into animal albumen. These regions are beyond the range of the ego's action. But in them there begins, and the more strenuously for the ego's absence, the activity of the astral body. This astral body is most vigorously active in the regions where between, so to speak, digestion, blood-formation and respiration the process of the middle organisation takes place. And the feebleness or apathy of the ego leaves this “middle process” very much to its own devices, and so this region begins to develop independent processes, out of harmony with the whole man, and restricted to the central area. The diabetic tendency arises if the ego excludes itself from the inner organic processes. These internal processes, especially such as involve internal secretion, are in their turn closely interlinked with the forming of feelings and emotion. While the ego seeks its main occupation through the brain, it leaves untended all the secretory activities which are circulatory and oscillatory. The result is that the patient loses control of certain soul influences which manifest themselves in the feeling life. Why do we retain our composure if something very exciting happens in our neighbourhood? Because we are able to send our reason into the intestines, and do not remain cerebrally encased, but are in possession of our whole being. If we only reflect, we cannot do this. If we are active in a one-sided intellectualistic fashion from our brains alone, the interior of man moves in its own way. The patient has then a particular tendency to excitement with the result that even in the intellectual sphere these excitements provoke their characteristic organic processes. Strictly speaking they should not produce immediately—i.e., as excitements stirring the feeling life—their organic counter-processes; but should become permeated with the intellect, tempered by the reason and only then act on the interior of man.

What is the fundamental cause of such manifestations? Nothing less than a slackness of the ego. In man the ego is akin to the regions farthest of all from the earth, to those forces which affect man from out of the most “peripheral” region. Indeed all the influences at work in our ego come to us from very far away. And so we must try to learn something of the processes akin to our ego, in the extra-human world, so that we may be able to put the ego in an environment which will teach and enable it to take the part it should in the telluric outside the earth.

On the earth, the equivalent of that urge by which the extra-telluric sphere causes the ego to work upon its own central organisation—this equivalent exists wherever the extra-telluric forces cause the mineral and plant-bearing earth to produce ethereal oils; or oils in general. This indicates the path to guide us. Just as certainly as the human ego is active in the eye, and makes direct contact with the external world by way of this gulf; with quite equal certainty we must bring the ego into contact with the process of oil formation. This will probably be best effected by preparing minutely dispersed oil in the bath water and treating the patient by means of oil-baths. It is most desirable that tests should be made as to the degree of sub-division of the oil, the frequency of the treatment and so forth. But that is the way by which we can succeed in combating that devastating affliction, diabetes. As you will see, the insight into the external process and its combination with an internal process of the human being, creates a physiology which is at once both human and extra-human, and which at the same time leads to therapeutics. And that is the way through which we must attain our results.

Let me then remind you—after we have gained some more concrete concepts—of the nature of man's kinship to the environment. Consider once more, the whole earth's flora; the vegetation that thrusts upwards through the soil, disperses its forces so to speak in the blossom, and re-marshals them in the fruit and the manifold remarkable variations of this process. Variations such as the possible retention in the foliage of forces which would otherwise pour themselves forth into the seed, how the leaves thus become herbaceous and thick; how the seed husk may perhaps become pulpous by the retention of certain forces at the eleventh hour so to speak—all variations are to be found.

But the process of plant formation is not a process which can be regarded only as a result of the physical action of the earth or of the counteracting forces of light. It goes further than that: just as the plant in very truth contains both the physical and etheric bodies in itself so also in the upper region where the extra-telluric sphere and the earth sphere meet, there is, connected with that vegetable nature, a cosmic-astral principle. We might express it thus: the plant grows and tends towards a formative animal process which it, however, does not attain. The interior of the earth is so to speak saturated with the formative plant process, but where the atmosphere meets earth there is also a pervading formative animal process which is not carried to its end, a process which the plant grows towards but fails to reach. This process we may behold in action, weaving as it were above the blossoming vegetation, and we may be aware that it encircles the whole earth. This process is centralised in the animal itself, where it is interiorised. The process which takes place weaving above the flowering plant world and which forms a circle around the earth sphere is centred in the animal itself and is removed into its interior; and the organs which the animal possesses and the plant lacks are simply what they require in order to unfold from a centre an effect that is exercised from without towards the plant.

This formative animal process is to be found in man as well; but in man it is situated more towards the centre of the whole physical organisation. It takes place more in the region between digestion, blood-formation and respiration. And in those regions man as far as the human formative process is concerned most resembles the present animal formative process. Consequently this physical internal man has the most kinship with all the life tendencies of the vegetable nature, so that we may rely on being able to influence and treat the region in question, by means of such vegetable life tendencies. Now, however, man has a power and advantage which the animal does not possess. He does not only go through the interaction between the plant and the astral element which is shared by animals also, but another interaction as well, namely that between the mineral and the “super-astral” which lies yet further beyond the purely astral realm. In fact it is especially characteristic of man in the present phase of earth's development, to share in the formative process of the mineral. Just as there is a constant transformation of albuminous substance in the animal world, there is an equally continuous process of a more peripheral tendency than the animal transformation of the albuminous process, an interaction which science at present ignores, between the heavens—so to speak—and the mineral realms. If we require a specific term for this process, let it be derived from the most characteristic feature: the process of de-salification. Within our human organism there takes place continually a process of de-salting, a tendency to change salt formation into its opposite; and on this our being man really rests, and above all our human thinking which goes beyond the animal range. As peripheral man—not—be it noted—as central man, for there we resemble the animal formation—but peripherally we fight against salt formation. We oppose salification just as the animal opposes the normal earth formation of vegetable albumen. In this opposition the forces are to be found which for man we must search for in the mineral kingdom itself, in order to cure certain ailments which we cannot get at with mere vegetable remedies. I would even say that to treat human complaints with herbal remedies only, is to regard man too much as an animal. One gives really due honour to man by expecting him to take part in that sterner battle waged in the earth's environment against the mineralisation of the earth, and one must give him the opportunity to take part with his ego in this struggle.

Whenever silicon is administered, an appeal is made to the dispersive forces within all, and to his power of overcoming this hard mineral element. And we put the ego in a position to participate vigorously in processes which have ceased to take place on the earth, but continue outside the earth where forces rule whose tendency is to disrupt and shatter all the telluric solid substances in the cosmic space. Cosmic space has the peculiarity of dispersal into the most minute particles all that solidifies in the planetary realm. We share but seldom in this disruptive activity, in the course of everyday life, unless we are mathematically inclined, i.e., are used to live much in mathematical shapes and to think in mathematical forms. For this way of thinking is based on the disruption of mineral substance. On the other hand, individuals with a certain aversion to mathematics, restrict themselves more to a mere de-salification. They are not able to become internal “mechanicians of disruption.” Such is the difference between mathematical and non-mathematical minds. And counteraction of earth's mineralising process is the groundwork for many therapeutic processes and methods.

Now, these things were included in primitive man's instinctive reactions of attack and defence. If man in those primitive ages became aware of encroaching weakness of thought, recourse was had to some mineral substance which was eaten or drunk and the disruption and internal dispersal of this mineral substance helped him to restore his faculty of attunement with the extra-telluric forces remote from the earth.

It is possible to follow the processes of external nature to the point of almost tangible proof of the accuracy of such beliefs. They are quite verifiable by observation. Consider for example a tree which is most interesting in this respect; Betula alba, the silver birch, which makes, as it were, a double stand against the normal formative process of the plant. This formative process in its normal course is not shared by Betula alba. It would be so shared if it were possible to combine what takes place in the birch bark with what takes place in the foliage, especially the unfolding foliage of spring, while the leaves are still tinged with brown. Were it possible to mingle these two distinct and differently localised processes, so that the functions of cortex and foliage were blended uniformly throughout, the result would be a magnificent herbaceous plant, with profuse blossoms. The silver birch is as it is, because the processes associated with living albumen formation are carried more into the leaves and concentrated there than is generally the case with plants; and on the other hand the process which consists in the formation of potash salts, is conserved in the bark. In plants which remain herbs, the two processes join so closely that in the root the essence of the potassium salt process is permeated with the formation of albumen. But the silver birch thrusts what the root draws from the soil, outwards into its bark and sends what other plants mingle with the earth's contribution, into its leaves, after having thrust the earth's contribution into the cortex. Thus the birch prepares itself to affect the human organism in different directions. The bark containing the appropriate potassium salt ingredients, is indicated if a patient is to be guided to de-salification—as for instance in various rashes and skin affections; then the substance pushed downwards into the birch's bark shoots into the periphery in man and heals the skin affection. On the other hand, if you take the leaves, with their forces of albumen formation, you can obtain a remedy specially indicated for internal and deep-seated complaints in mankind, and very beneficial in cases of gout and rheumatism. Now suppose we wish to heighten the efficiency of these processes, let us have recourse to the mineral constituents in the structure of the birch. Take birch wood, and prepare from it vegetable carbon—we have, then, ready to hand, powerful remedies for the defects of what is external inside the body, namely the intestines, etc. One must learn to grasp, by the appearance of plants, their effects on the human being. If we contemplate Betula alba from this angle, we may conclude that if we wish to make the tree with all its valuable properties into part of man so as to heal him, we must turn it round so that the forces pouring into the wood and bark should be united with the human skin and periphery, and the parts which the birch turns outwards in foliage should be invaginated into the interior of man. Thus the tree would be not only reversed but turned inside out—so to speak, to complete the picture—in the body of man. From this picture we can read the right application of the healing properties of the birch.

As for plants with very powerfully developed roots, so that the root-forming forces deposit potassium salts and sodium salts, you will find in them the tendency to retain the root forces even in the foliage; and this means a tendency to beneficial action in cases of hemorrhage as well as gravel of the kidneys. An example of these effects strongly indicated as of use in hemorrhages in kidney troubles and all intermediate conditions, is Capsella bursæ pastoris the shepherd's purse.

Now try to enter into the peculiarities of such a plant as the common scurvy grass, Cochlearea officinalis. It is of interest also, as containing sulphuric oils or oils with a high content of sulphur. These sulphuric oils enable the plant to work upon its albumen by virtue of sulphur. Now sulphur is within the mineral kingdom that element that promotes the formative forces of the albuminous process; these are accelerated when too slow, through the addition of the sulphur process. These two processes sum up the essential nature of a plant like scurvy grass or spoon-wort. Because the scurvy grass grows on certain soils and in certain places, and because it is inserted in a certain way into the frame of nature it is doomed to develop albuminous processes at too slow a rate, while by a marvelous natural instinct this retardation is balanced by the formation of oils containing sulphur, which quicken the slack albumen process. Note, however, that an accelerated albuminous process differs from one that runs by its very nature with equal speed; this must be always borne in mind. Of course it is possible to discover albuminous processes quite as rapid as that of the scurvy grass in several other plants. But these have not been called forth by the inertia being acted upon by the accelerating principle. It is the continuous interaction of inertia and acceleration principles in the growth of the scurvy grass which so adapt this plant for use as a remedy in conditions such as scurvy, etc: for the process characteristic of scurvy is remarkably like that just described.

It is my belief that a personal training which enables us to link up the events in external nature with those inside man will show the way to these extremely significant affinities and also to an understanding of man which you can acquire in no other way. For in very truth man can only be understood through the comprehension of the extra-human sphere, and this in turn only through the human sphere. One must be able to study both concurrently. And I would beg you not to consider it superfluous to pass on to a matter which should be very useful in our next discussion, namely to the peculiar activities of the spleen in the human organism.

The function of the spleen inclines strongly to the spiritual side. So much so, that I have pointed out in a lecture cycle on “Occult Physiology,” that if the spleen is removed, the etheric body very easily takes its place; therefore the spleen is an organ most easily replaced by its etheric counterpart in man—by the etheric spleen. The spleen is less associated with metabolism as such than are the other organs of the human abdomen. The spleen is but little associated with the actual metabolic function, but closely associated with the regulation of that function. What exactly is the spleen? In the investigations of spiritual science, the spleen appears as the agent appointed to attune continuously the crude metabolism to what occurs in a more spiritual or psychological way in man. Like all our organs—some in a greater or lesser degree—the spleen is very much a strong subconscious organ of sense, it reacts in a remarkable measure to the rhythm of human nutrition. Persons who eat at all times and any time—produce in their systems a very different kind of activity from that of persons who leave intervals between their meals. This difference is specially perceptible in children, if they have the nibbling or gobbling habit; for the result is a jerky and irregular action of the spleen. This can be observed also in cases where there is no regular feeding, and then some time after the individual has fallen asleep the spleen comes to comparative repose—of course only to comparative repose according to its own nature. The spleen is the sensory organ of the more spiritualised part of man for the rhythms of nutrition and it tells man in his subconsciousness, what counter-agents to employ, in order at least to mitigate the deleterious effect of irregular nutrition. Thus the spleen's activity is directed less towards the actual metabolic process than towards its rhythmical adjustment; the spleen shares in the rhythm which must necessarily rule as between intake of substance and the rhythm of respiration. For between the rhythm of respiration and the nutritive processes which are not specially adapted to rhythm, there is, as it were, interpolated an intermediate rhythm, brought about by the spleen. The respiratory rhythm enables man to live within the strict rhythm of the cosmos. But by irregular nutrition he continually deflects this cosmic rhythm. And the spleen mediates and modifies this disharmony.

This fact is verifiable through observation of man. In the light of this fact, I beg you to study the anatomical and physiological material at your disposal. You will find corroboration, down to the most minute detail. In the fact that the splenetic artery is almost directly connected with the aorta, and also in the external relative position of the spleen in the whole organism, you will find my statements corroborated; whereas at the same time you will find morphological testimony to the nutritive relationship, in the particular insertion of the splenetic vein into the whole organism which leads into the portal vein and is thus directly connected with the liver.

Thus, these two systems, one without rhythmic pulsation, the other essentially rhythmic, coordinate and mutually regulate themselves. The spleen's activity is interpolated between the rhythmic and the metabolic systems. Much of what is due to inadequate or irregular splenetic functions, must be met on the basis of this knowledge of the interactions between the respiratory and metabolic systems or the circulatory and metabolic, as linked together by the spleen. It is indeed in no way strange that in materialistic science the physiology of the spleen has been so much neglected; for materialistic science knows nothing of the threefold human being—the metabolic human being, the circulatory human being and finally, the human being of senses and nerves.

You will now see the gradual emergence of the subjects on which you were good enough to put questions, in the course of these lectures. But there must be a certain foundation for rational answers to these inquiries. Now, it is my intention to start from the point to which we advanced yesterday, namely from the significance of splenetic functions in the human organism. These functions must be regarded as actually the main factors in regulating the subconscious life of the soul; so it is a misunderstanding of the whole nature of man, to regard the spleen as an organ of minor importance. This error may often occur, however, because of the case with which the spleen's functions can be taken over by its etheric equivalent, and this for the very reason that it is a highly spiritualised organ; and also because other organs may be called in to help do its work. Nevertheless the activity of the spleen becomes more remarkable, if raised out of the subconscious sphere into some degree of awareness. This brings us to the consideration of a remedial method which has aroused much interest of recent years. It is significant that we arrive at its consideration by way of the spleen. You may convince yourselves by experiment that mild massage in the region of the spleen regulates and benefits the instinctive activities in mankind. In a certain way, the patient thus treated obtains better instincts for suitable food and sounder and more beneficial organic habits;. Note that this method of local massage has strict and close limitations. In the moment that the massage becomes too vigorous it becomes apt to undermine completely the life of instinct. So that we must be most careful to observe the zero point. The gentle massage must not go too far.

Gentle massage of the regions round the spleen, brings something into those regions which is not there as a rule. In a sense, the consciousness of the person massaged is projected as it were into those regions. And very much depends on this displacement of consciousness, this letting it stream in, although it is often difficult to define these delicate workings of our organism in the crude terms of our speech. However strange the statement may appear, there is a powerful interaction between the unconscious activities of reason of which the splenetic functions rather than the spleen itself are the mediators, and the actual conscious functions of the human organism. What precisely are these conscious functions of the human organism? All those processes in the organism whose nature involves that their physical occurrences are accompanied by the higher processes of consciousness, especially by the conceptual processes, are toxic activities in the organism. This must not be overlooked. The organism poisons itself continually precisely through its conceptual activity; and counteracts these toxic conditions continually through the operation of the unconscious will. The centre for these conditions of the unconscious will is the spleen. If we stimulate the spleen and imbue it with a certain awareness, by means of massage, we take action against the powerful toxic effects caused by our higher consciousness. And this massage may be applied not only externally but from within as well. You may dispute the term massage in this connection, but you will understand what I mean. Let us take an individual case, in which we perceive an excessive inner organic activity caused by toxic conditions. The abnormal state of splenetic consciousness can be beneficially affected by the following advice, “Do not confine your intake of food to the chief meals of the day, but rather eat as little as you can at those meals, and take other nourishment in between meals; spread out your consumption of food, so that you eat little at a time but frequently, at short intervals.” The abnormal consciousness of the spleen can be influenced in this way. For to eat little and often is essentially an internal massage of the spleen, which considerably alters the activity of that organ. Of course, there is a “but”; all that concerns the organic processes under discussion has its “buts.” In our age of haste and hurry in which almost everyone is caught up in some exhausting external activity, the spleen and its functions are extraordinarily liable to impairment through this ceaseless round of work. Mankind does not follow the example of certain animals who keep themselves sound and “fit,” by lying down to rest after food, so that their digestive processes are not disturbed by external activity. These animals are really taking care of their spleen. Man does not take care of his spleen if occupied in some hurried activity at the expense of nervous energy. And therefore the splenetic function in the whole of modern civilised peoples gradually becomes thoroughly abnormal; so that especial significance attaches to its relief and recovery through the sort of remedies I have just indicated.

Such delicate processes as massage of the spleen, whether external or internal, draw attention to the relationship between those organs of mankind which transmit the unconscious experience. They illuminate the whole significance of massage. Massage has a certain definite significance and under some circumstances a powerful remedial effect, but above all it influences and regulates rhythm in man. The regulation of human rhythmic processes is the main office of massage. And to massage successfully, one must know the human organism well. You will find the way if you consider the following. Think for a moment of the immense difference between arms and legs in the human frame, as distinct from the animal. The arms of man, which are liberated from the oppression of weight and can move freely, have their astral body far less closely bound to the physical, than in the case of the feet. To the feet the astral body is closely bound. In fact we may say that in the case of the arms, the astral body acts from and inwards through the skin, enveloping arms and hands and working centripetally. In the legs and feet, the will works through the astral body very strongly in a centrifugal direction radiating powerfully outwards, from within. Therefore, if massage is applied to the legs and feet in man, the process is essentially different from that of massage applied to the hands and arms. If the arms are treated by massage, the astral element is drawn from outside inwards, and the arms become very much more instruments of the will than they would otherwise be. Through this there is a regulative effect on internal metabolism, especially on that part of the metabolic process taking place between intestine and blood vessels. In short, massage of the upper limbs acts to a great extent on the formation of the blood. If, on the other hand, the feet and legs are massaged the physical element is transmuted rather into something of a conceptual nature and a regulative action follows on the metabolism that is concerned with processes of evacuation and excretion. The extreme complexity of the human organism is most clearly revealed in these indirect and secondary effects of massage whether starting from the arms and mainly affecting the upbuilding internal processes of metabolism, or starting from the legs and feet and affecting the disintegrating processes of metabolism. If you investigate rationally, you will indeed find that every bodily region and part has a certain connection with other regions and parts; and that the efficacy of massage depends on an adequate insight into these interrelationships. Massage of the lower body will always be of benefit even to the function of breathing; a circumstance of special interest. And in fact the farther we go from above downwards, we find that the organs above the centre benefit progressively. For example, massage directly below the cardiac region influences respiration; if we go farther down, the organs of the throat are influenced. It is a reversed process; the farther we descend from the centre, in massage of the trunk, the greater the effect on the upper organs, and strangely enough, massage treatment of the arms is much helped by massage of the upmost region of the trunk. These facts illustrate the interlocking of the individual regions and limbs of the human body. This interaction of upper and lower organs, which may be quite distant but are nevertheless akin to another, is especially evident in such ailments as, e.g., migraine.

Migraine or sick headache is nothing but a transference to the head of the digestive activities in the rest of the organism. All conditions of special organic stress, such as the monthly period in women, are apt to influence migraine. When a digestive activity wholly foreign to the head thus takes place, the head nerves are loaded with a burden from which they should be, and normally are, free. If the normal digestive activity, i.e., only the absorption of substance, goes on in the head, then the local nerves are permitted to become sensory and perceptive. They are deprived of this character if there is a disorderly digestive activity in the head, as just indicated. They become, therefore, inwardly sensitive, and their receptivity for processes to which the internal organism should be quite indifferent is the basis of the pain typical of migraine and of its characteristic symptoms. It is easy to understand what the sensations must be, if someone is suddenly compelled to be aware of the interior of his own head, instead of the external environment. And true comprehension of the condition will mean that the best remedy can only be sought in “sleeping it off.” For all other “remedies,” which are applied and which one is sometimes obliged to apply, are actually harmful. Let us suppose you use the popular allopathic preparations; what is achieved is merely the culling and blunting of the sensitiveness of the over-stimulated nervous apparatus, that is to say, you lower its activity. Take an instance: suppose an attack of migraine occurs just before the sufferer has to appear in public, on the stage; he prefers to inflict some injury on himself rather than to break what should really not be blunted or dulled, can be especially well observed. In such cases it becomes obvious how extremely delicate our human organism is, and how we often through the pressure exercised by social life, are compelled to offend against the needs of our organism. That is an obvious and important factor which must not be forgotten and one is sometimes compelled to accept a harm, simply arising through the social conditions of the patient, and merely to cure its sequelæ.

The delicacy and sensitiveness of our bodily organisation become evident also by objective and systematic study of light and color treatment for disease. This use of light and color should be more considered in the future than it has been in the past. One must learn to distinguish here, between color which appeals exclusively to the upper sphere of the human being and light proper which has a more objective tendency and appeals to the whole human being. If we simply take the person into a room lit in a certain way, or even expose a portion of the body to the objective influence of color or light—we act directly on the human organs. We then have indeed an influence wholly external. But if the “exposure” is made in such a way as to affect consciousness through the sensation of color—as when instead of irradiation with colored light, the person is brought into a room draped and furnished throughout in a certain colour—the effect penetrates all the organs adjacent to those of consciousness. This “subjective color therapy” always works upon the ego; while in “objective color therapy,” the influence is primarily on the physical system, and through the physical vehicle on the ego, indirectly. Do not raise the objection that it is useless to bring a blind person into the environment of a room furnished in one color, because the patient can receive no visual impression and the result must be nil. Such is not the case. In such conditions the sensory effects which work under the sensory surface, so to speak, are very powerful. There is a difference to a blind person, according to whether a room is entirely red, or entirely blue. The difference is considerable. Take a blind person into a room with blue walls: the effect is to draw or deflect all functional activity from the head to the rest of the organism. If the same person is taken into a completely red room, the effect is reversed; the organic functions are deflected towards the head. From this it is evident that the main effect lies in the rhythm of changing the colour in the environment. The changes of color are the main factor rather than the colors themselves. The isolated influence of a blue room or red is less significant than the contrast in reactions, when the individual who has been in a red environment is brought into a blue, or after being surrounded with blue, into a red. This is significant. Suppose we see a patient, and diagnose the need of improving his upper organic sphere by stimulation of the functions of the head; we should take the patient into a blue room and afterwards into a red. If we wish to act indirectly, through the rest of the organism upon the head function, we should take the person out of a red environment into a blue.

In my opinion much importance should be attached to these methods in a not distant future. Color therapy, not only light treatment, will soon play a great part. The interplay of conscious and unconscious elements is important in itself, and should be given scope. Through this interplay, we shall also be able to form a sound judgment of the special effects of medicinal substances as administered in baths: there is a great difference according to whether the external application of any substance to the human organism produces the sensations of warmth or cold. If anything, whether compress or bath, acts in a cooling way upon me then the effect is to be ascribed mainly to the substance employed; if a cure follows, it will be due to the substantial remedy employed. But if the application produces a sensation of warmth, e.g., a warm compress, its effects are not due to the substance used, for that is almost a matter of indifference, but to the action of warmth itself; and the action of warmth is identical from whatever quarter it may operate. In applying cold compresses, care should be taken to mix the particular liquid employed, whether water or not with this or that substance. These substances can be made efficasious, if they are soluble at low temperatures, when used in cold water. On the other hand—with the exception of ethereal [etheric] substances which are powerfully aromatic and exercise their specific effects even at high temperatures—there will be little specific substantial effect in the case of materials which are easily soluble when in solid form. They do not easily operate even in warm compresses and hot baths. Substances which are phosphoric or sulphuric, as, e.g., sulphur itself, used as accessories to warm baths, exercise their peculiar healing properties most fully.

Such interactions as those I have just cited, must be minutely observed. And in this connection it will be of great service to you to establish a sort of “Primary Phenomena.” This method of establishing a kind of primary phenomena was much in use during the ages when the practice of medicine had its source in the Mysteries. Knowledge was not then expressed theoretically but in primary phenomena, as for instance: “If thou takest into thyself honey or wine, thou dost thereby strengthen from within the forces of the cosmos working into thee from outside.” This might be expressed in other terms: “by doing so thou strengthenest the actual forces of the ego”:—the meaning would be the same. This way of putting things makes them very easy to survey. “But if thou dost rub thy body thoroughly with an oily stuff thou dost weaken thereby the harmful action of the forces of earth”: that is to say, of the forces opposed to the action of the ego, within the organism. And these ancients, these physicians of old, have also said: “If thou findest the right measure between the strengthening by sweetness from within, and the weakening by oil from without, then thou shalt live long.” We might say: “Let the action of oil avert from your organism the harmful influence of earth; and if you are able to do so and not constitutionally too feeble, let the forces of your ego be strengthened with wine or honey; then you strengthen the forces that lead you to a green old age.” Such are the prescriptions and statements in axiomatic form. The aim was to guide mankind aright through facts, not doctrines. And we must return to this method. For among the multitudinous and various materials of the external world we can find our way far better in the light of primary phenomena than by abstract laws of nature, which always let the student down when he has to approach some concrete case.

Now some of these primary phenomena are most easily enunciated, and I should like to give you some examples; here is one: “Put your feet in water and you will stimulate forces in the lower abdomen, which will promote the formation of blood.” This is one which is full of suggestion. “If you wash your head you stimulate forces in the lower abdomen, which regulate evacuation.” Such rules are illuminating for they embrace law, reality. The human being is there, when I express something of this sort; for the things are of course meaningless unless one is thinking of the human being, and it is essential to keep man in mind in the case of all these things.

These matters are more connected with the spatial and regional interactions of forces in the human organism. There is, however, also an interaction in time which is unmistakably conspicuous in cases where a man has received such mistaken treatment during childhood or early youth, that throughout the whole of life, what should have been developed in childhood and youth, remains lacking, and only that is evolved which should be evolved in the adult. To put it in another way. It is the nature of man that he develops certain forces in early youth which then become formative for the organism. But not everything formed in the youthful organism finds its right use and place in life during the years of youth. We form and build up our bodies in youth, in order to obtain and conserve some things which can only be active and evident in later life. Thus, in childhood certain organs;—as I would call them—are built up, which are not meant for use during childhood; but in later life they can no longer be acquired. They are therefore held in reserve, so to speak, for use in adult age. Let us assume that no heed is paid to the fact that until the teeth are cut a child should be educated by imitation, and that after dentition, education and teaching should attach great importance to authority. If both imitation and authority are thus ignored, the organs which appertain to the adult may be used prematurely. Of course the materialistic attitude of today may deprecate the use of imitation or authority as principles of education. But their significance is great, because of their effects, and they reverberate throughout the organism. It must, however, be understood that the child must live with his whole soul within the act of imitation. Here is an example. Suppose you educate the child in liking and eating some wholesome food, by accustoming it to copy the adult's enjoyment of that food: in this manner you will combine the principle of imitation by action, with the cultivation of an appetite for suitable food. The imitative act is continued into the organism. The same suggestions holds good with respect to authority in education. If those organs (they are naturally subtle organisations) which should normally remain latent till the later age are called into activity during childhood, then the dreadful Dementia Præcox may result. That is the true origin of Dementia Præcox. And a sound objective education is a splendid remedial method. We are at present making efforts in this direction at the Waldorf School, but cannot as yet extend them to an earlier stage of growth before the sixth or seventh year. But when we are at last in a position to put the whole educational process at the service of the knowledge that spiritual science offers—on the lines of my booklet Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy, Dementia Præcox will be on the way to disappear. For such educational methods will avert the danger of premature and precocious employment of organs essential to the adult. So much for the general principles of sound education.

There is also the opposite phenomenon. It consists in this: we also tend to accumulate and conserve what should only be unfolded as an activity of the organs in youth. Throughout life there are, to be sure, calls on the organs which are destined to function mainly in childhood and youth; but this continued activity must become less vigorous, or harm may ensue. Here is the domain in which owing to different causes such theories as that of psychoanalysis have been able to confuse the whole of human thinking. Indeed it is true that the most harm in life is not done by the greatest mistakes, for such great errors can soon be refuted, but by conceptions containing a grain of truth, for this grain of truth is accepted, exaggerated and abused.

What are the facts which support the rise of conceptions of psycho-analytic lines? Because of the current habits of life today (which are in many respects opposed to nature, and in no way give man the necessary adaptation to the external environment)—much that makes a deep impression on the human mind in childhood, is not worked up. Thus there remain in the life of the soul, factors not adequately embodied by the organism; for all that operates in the soul's life, however slightly, has its continuance, or should have it, in some effect on the organism. Our children, however, receive many impressions so contrary to normal conditions that they remain confined to the soul, they cannot forthwith transmute themselves into organic impressions. Thus they remain, as it were, in the soul where they are and as they do not share in the whole development of man, they remain as isolated impulses of the soul. Had they kept pace with man's whole organic development, had they not remained isolated impulses, they would not take possession, at a later stage, of the organs which are destined only to function at maturity and which have no longer the task of turning to account the impressions of youth. Something wrong is thus brought about in the whole human being. He is obliged to let the soul's isolated impulses work upon organs which are no longer fitted for it. There then result the manifestations which may certainly be diagnosed by means of a psychoanalytic method, wisely employed. Careful interrogatories will bring to light certain things in the life of the soul which are simply not worked up, and which have a devastating effect on organs already too old for such working up. But the main thing for consideration is that by this route it is never possible to effect a cure, but only to diagnose a condition. If we keep to the purely diagnostic use of psycho-analysis, we are employing a method which has its justification when used with due discretion. Note well, with due and honourable discretion, so that there may be no such occurrences as I can testify have happened in some cases and for which there is corroborative written evidence. Such occurrences, for example as the employment of servants and attendants, as spies to furnish intimate particulars which are then used as bases for catechising the patients in question. That kind of thing happens sufficiently often to constitute a grave danger and gross abuse. But apart from this—for after all, in these matters so much depends on the ethical standard of the persons concerned—we can admit that from the standpoint of diagnosis, there is some truth in psycho-analysis. But it is impossible to achieve therapeutic results on the lines laid down by psycho-analysts. And that is again linked up with a characteristic of the present age.

It is the tragedy of materialism, that it leads directly away from the knowledge of matter; that it hinders the comprehension of the properties of matter. Materialism is in fact not so detrimental to the proper recognition of the spiritual as it is to the recognition of the spiritual in matter. The repudiation of the conception that spiritual activity is everywhere at work in matter, represses so much that must not be repressed if we are to form a sound conception of our human life. If I am a “materialist” I cannot possibly ascribe to matter all the characteristics we have discussed in these studies. For it is ruled out as merely preposterous to ascribe all those qualities to substances which they in fact possess. That means one is estranged from the knowledge of the material sphere. One no longer talks of phosphoric manifestations, saline manifestations, and so forth, because “all that sort of thing” is dismissed out of hand, as nonsense. This loss of the knowledge of spiritual factors in material substances deprives us of the systematic study of formative processes, and above all, it means the loss of the perception that every organ of man has actually a twofold task, one related to an orientation to consciousness, the other, its opposite, to an orientation to the purely organic process.

The recognition of this fact has been particularly obscured in a matter with which we must now briefly deal: in the study of teeth. From the materialistic point of view the teeth are more or less regarded as mere chewing implements. But they are more than that. Their double nature is easily apparent, for if they are tested chemically, they appear to be part of our bone system; but ontogenetically, they emerge from the skin system. The teeth have a double nature and office, but the second of the two is deeply hidden. Compare, for a moment, a set of human teeth with that of an animal. You will find most conspicuous in the latter what I pointed out in the first of our lessons here, the heavy down-draw weight, the massiveness characteristic of the whole skeleton, which I pointed out in the case of the ape. In man, on the other hand, the teeth themselves show in a certain way the effect of the vertical line. This is because our teeth are not only implements for chewing, they are also very essential implements of suction; they have a mechanical external action, and also an extremely fine, spiritualised inward sucking action. We must inquire: what is it that the teeth draw into the body by means of this suction? So long as they are able to do so, they suck in fluorine. Our teeth suck in fluorine. They are instruments of suction for that substance. Man needs fluorine in his organism in very minute amounts, and if deprived of its effects—here I must say something which will perhaps shock you—he becomes too clever. He acquires a degree of cleverness which almost destroys him. The fluorine dosage restores the necessary amount of stupidity, the mental dullness, which we need if we are to be human beings. We require constant dosage with fluorine in very small amounts as a protection against excessive cleverness. The premature decay of the teeth, which is caused by fluorine action, points to excessive demands on the process of fluorine suction. This indicates that man is stimulated to self-defence against dullness through some agency, with which we shall deal presently, although time forbids detailed treatment. Man as it were disintegrates his teeth so that the fluorine action should not go beyond a certain point and make him dull. The interactions of cause and effect are very subtle here. The teeth become defective in order that the individual may not become too stupid! Such is the intimate connection between what is of benefit to man on the one hand, and what tends to cause harm on the other. Under certain circumstances we have need of the action of fluorine, in order not to become too clever. But we can injure ourselves by excess in this respect, and then our organic activity destroys and decays the teeth.

I beg you to consider these suggestions thoroughly; for they are connected with things of the greatest significance in the human organism.

On the foundation of the material of the preceding lecture I must summarise some things calculated to throw light on the whole of what we considered and indeed to make it fruitful. Although all this can only be a preliminary outline, it is well that we are able to give two days to this study. In continuing our yesterday's subject which referred to the development and retrogression of the teeth I want to put before you some facts which should throw light on man in the state of health and sickness. It is inadvisable to take such explanations on too materialistic lines; for we should really regard such external occurrence, as, for instance, dental decay as the visible symptoms of a certain inner process; this process hides itself from external perception, but has consequences which are externally visible.

You will understand the whole process of dental formation, if viewed in the light of other processes in mankind, which appear quite remote; for instance, the phenomenon with which you are well acquainted but whose correct significance can only be judged in connection with tooth formation. Girls and young women have good teeth—and after their first confinement and childbirth their teeth are defective. This circumstance should help to explain the connection of toothache and defective teeth with the whole bodily constitution. There is another very interesting connection, between dental processes and the tendency to hæmorrhoids or piles; this also needs study. A study of these things proves that what has the most mineralising effect in the body of man—for dental formation is our most mineralising process—is also closely associated with the general process of organisation and shows this association and interdependence in the human area most distant on the mouth and teeth. Here is a significant fact with regard the process of dental formation, which cannot be disputed. The completion of this dental formative process—the external cusp of the tooth which projects from the gums, is a region of the human frame which is given up to the external world as something mineral. Here the substance of the external layer (enamel) merges into the mineral world, nutritive processes are eliminated and a piece of inorganic substance is left. I indicated yesterday that the progressive development of dental structure is perhaps less important than the process of decomposition which accompanies the formation of the teeth throughout life. For on the one hand, it must be admitted that at this pole of the organisation at which the extremity of the tooth develops, the internal organisation cannot contribute very much to the formative process. But we must not forget that this internal organisation is closely involved in the destructive process, and therefore the more important and urgent question is how to retard the tendency in man to the destruction of this process. It would be a complete mistake to believe destruction and decay are purely the result of external injuries. My remarks yesterday on the function of fluorine in the formation of our teeth, refer mainly to the period of childhood, in which the formative process takes place from inside towards the surface and is in its preparatory stage. For it prepares itself deep in the interior of the whole organism before the second teeth appear. This formative process of fluorine reaches its culminating point in a stable equilibrium—brought about in the substance on the surface of the teeth; the fluorine becomes fixed here to the substance and is, as it were, at rest. But this rest is disturbed by the regressive development of the teeth, which approach gradual decay. This is a subtle process, starting from the tooth and connected with a formative process caused by the fluorine extending throughout the body, and yet continued throughout the whole life of man.

What I have just maintained sets the stage for the whole prophylaxis of the condition. Now I could say something of this sort: a considerable part of what is included in the educational methods of our Waldorf School, besides other things promoting health, is the prevention of early dental decay in those who attend the school for it is indeed remarkable that just in relation to the peripheral structures and processes very much depends upon the right education in childhood. It is regrettable that we are only able to work upon the child at a time—even at the Waldorf School—when it is somewhat too late for the prophylactic treatment necessary to dental formation. we ought to be able to start this work on younger children. However, as teeth do not appear all at once, but gradually, and the internal process is of longer duration, it is still possible to do something with children from six to seven years of age. Something—but certainly not enough. For it is advisable—as I have already emphasised—to ascertain the exact individual dental type. As soon as the first tooth makes its appearance of course it is possible to raise the objection that the dental formation is already prepared and that the crown of the tooth is perfected and only thrusts itself into the light. Yes, that is true, but it is possible to judge dental formative process from other indications than the teeth themselves. If a child of from four to six years old is clumsy and awkward with arms, hands, legs and feet—or cannot adapt himself to a skillful use of his arms and legs and especially of his hands and feet, we shall find that he is inclined to an abnormal process of dental formation. The behaviour of limbs and extremities reveals the same constitutional type as is shown in the dental formative process. Therefore a great influence is exercised on dental formation if we teach children as early as possible to run with dexterity, with intricate movements of the feet such as a kind of modified hopscotch in which the rear foot is brought with some force against the heel of the front foot, or similar exercises. If this is connected with an acquirement of skill in the fingers it will promote the tooth formation very considerably.

Go into our needlework classes and handicraft classes at the Waldorf School, and you will find the boys knit and crochet as well as the girls, and that they share these lessons together. Even the older boys are enthusiastic knitters. This is not the result of any fad or whim, but happens deliberately in order to make the fingers skillful and supple, in order to permeate the fingers with the soul. And to drive the soul into the fingers means to promote all the forces that go to build up sound teeth. It is no matter of indifference whether we let an indolent child sit about all day long, or make it move and run about; or whether we let a child be awkward and helpless with its hands, or train it to manual skill. Sins of omission in these matters bear fruit later in the early destruction of the teeth; of course sometimes in more pronounced forms, and sometimes in less, for there is great individual diversity, but they are bound to manifest themselves. In fact, the earlier we begin to train and discipline the child, on the lines indicated, the more we shall tend to slow down and counteract the process of dental decay. Any interference with dental processes is so difficult that we should carefully consider such measures even if they seem to be far-fetched.

Now this question is before me: How is fluorine absorbed into the organism; through the enamel, through the saliva, through the pulp or by the blood channels?

Fluorine in itself is one of the formative processes of man and it is somewhat beside the mark to speculate about the precise manner of its absorption. As a rule, we need only consider the normal nutritive process of everyday, by which substances containing various fluorine compounds are incorporated. Now follow this normal process of nutrition, which distributes fluorine to the periphery in the directions and to the regions where it is to be deposited. It is important to know that fluorine is much more widely distributed than is generally supposed. Much is contained in plants of the most different varieties—that is, comparatively speaking, for very little is required by man. But the process of fluorine formation is present in plants, even when fluorine itself is not chemically demonstrable; we shall refer to this presently in greater detail. Indeed fluorine is always present in water, even in our drinking water, so there is no difficulty in getting at it. It is only a matter of our organism being so constructed as to master and perform the highly complicated process of fluorine absorption. In the customary terminology of medicine, one may say that fluorine is carried to its destination through the blood channels.

Then I come to the inquiry whether the enamel of the teeth still receives nutrition after the teeth have been cut. No, this is not the case, as may appear from what has already been stated. But something else takes place, to which I would now call your attention. It might be expressed as follows: from the standpoint of spiritual research, around the growing teeth there is a remarkable activity of the human etheric body which is freed from the physical organisation or only loosely attached to it. This activity, which can be quite distinctly observed, forms as it were a constant etheric movement of organising around the jaws. Such a free organisation does not exist in the lower abdominal region; in that area it unites itself most closely with the physical organic activity, and thence arise the phenomena to which I have already referred. Thus, when there is a separation of the etheric body's activity from the physical organisation, e.g., during pregnancy, immediately at the opposite pole of the organism, pronounced changes in the teeth are brought about. Hæmorrhoids are another consequence of separation between the etheric and physical bodies, each “going their own way” But the fact that in this extremity of the human frame, the etheric body becomes independent implies that at the other pole the etheric body is drawn into the physical organisation, and destructive processes come into operation. For all things which increase organic activities—as for instance in the normal way in pregnancy, and in the abnormal way in diseases—all things which are stimulants to healthy functions have on the other hand concurrent effects on the dental structure where they work destructively. This is what should be especially noted.

What we do as an interplay between feet and hands is the macroscopic aspect of the fluorine workings. The constitution arising if the fingers and the legs become supple and skillful, is the working of fluorine. This is fluorine—not what the atomistic theorists imagine, but what is made manifest on the surface of the human organism, and is continued and extended inwards. This internal continuance of the process at the periphery is the essence of fluorine working. But if the external fluorine workings are disturbed, then the complexity of the human organism requires us to supplement education with therapeutics. For we not only perceive the result of defective or mistaken education in the condition of the teeth, but also in the child's being awkward and helpless. In such cases we must bring prophylactic influences upon the organism, and it is very interesting that a regulative action on the preservation of the teeth may be possible—of course if it has not been started too late—by means of an aqueous extract from the husks of horse chestnuts; that is to say Æsculin extract, in very high dilution and administered by the mouth.

This is again an interesting connection. The juice of the horse chestnut contains something of the same principle as that which builds up our teeth. There is always some substance out in the macrocosm with an internal organising effect. In Æsculin there is a force which ejects the “chemism” from the substance in which it is active. The chemism is so to speak rendered ineffective. If a beam of light is projected through a dilution of Æsculin, the chemical effect is obliterated. This obliteration is again perceptible if the aqueous dilution of Æsculin is taken internally; but note that it must be a very mild dilution and in a watery medium. Then it becomes evident that this overcoming of the chemism and trend towards pure mineralisation are essentially the same as the organic process which builds up the teeth. Only the obliteration in the external experiment is permeated still with the organising forces which are inherent in the human organism.

In a similar direction but by another method, we may use the common chlorophyll. The same force that is localised in the husk of the horse chestnut and some other plants, is also contained in chlorophyll, though in a somewhat different formation. But in order to use it we must try to extract as it were the chlorophyll in ether and use it not by internal dosage, but externally as a salve for the lower part of the body. If we rub the lower abdomen with etherised chlorophyll we shall produce the same effect on the preservation of the teeth, indirectly, through the whole organism, as is produced by the oral administration of Æsculin. These are things which need to be tested and which would certainly make a great impression on the general public if their statistical results could be made available. If the whole pulp of the tooth is “dead” an attempt should be made to adapt the whole organism to the absorption of fluorine. This is no longer a matter of mere dental treatment.

So you see how greatly dental treatment—in so far as dental treatment is still practicable—is related to all the growth-forces of the human organism. For what I have explained with reference to Æsculin and chlorophyll leads to the recognition of forces connected with very delicate processes of growth-processes tending towards mineralisation. The fact is that mankind has to pay for its higher evolution in the direction of the spirit, with a retrogressive development of the formative teeth process. And phylo-genetically the same is true; compared with the process of dental formation in the animals, our human process is one of retrogression. But it is not singular in that respect; this character of retrogression in the formation of the teeth is only one of many others in the organisation of the human head.

With this we have reached forms of thought which may be of great importance for our judgment of the whole process of dental formation. More insight will still be attained when we add some other facts which form a basis for it. I shall therefore include here a section which may not seem immediately to the point, for it will treat of questions of diet which are, however, closely related to our present theme.

Questions of diet are so important because they have social as well as medicinal implications. One may spend endless time in discussing whether the dietetic rules of Mazdaznan or other special schools and creeds, have any justification or significance. But in all the arguments pro and con, and the prescriptions which are given in these schools, we must admit that a person is treated as an unsocial being. But social problems combine with medical. The more we are compelled or advised to have some extra kind of food, something special to ourselves alone and not only in matters of food but in things from the external world—the more unsocial we become. The significance of the Last Supper lies in this: not that Christ gave something special to each of his disciples, but that He gave the same to all. The mere possibility of being together with others, as we eat or drink, has a great social value, and all that might tend to repress this healthy natural tendency, should—if I may say so—be treated with caution. If man be left alone in individual isolation, not only as regards conscious processes but also in all organic activities he develops all manner of appetites, and anti-appetites. Attention to these individual appetites and anti-appetites need not be given the importance usually bestowed. I am speaking now with reference to the whole constitution. If a man has become able to endure something naturally distasteful to him—that is to say, if an anti-appetite (in the wider sense, speaking of the whole organisation) has been conquered, then that person has gained more for the efficiency of his organisation than the constant avoidance of what is antipathetic. The conquest of something distasteful means the reconstruction of an organ which has been ruined or, in relation to the etheric, is a new organ; and this in no symbolic sense, but in fact. The organic formative force consists in nothing less than the conquest of antipathies. To gratify appetites beyond a certain limit, is not to serve and strengthen our organs, but to hypertrophise them and bring about their degeneration. To go too far in yielding to the antipathies of the organism, causes profound damage to the whole organisation. While on the other hand gradually to accustom a man to that which seems unsuitable to him always strengthens the constitution.

Almost everything we need to know in this division of our subject has been covered over by our modern natural science. For the external principle of the struggle for existence and natural selection is really purely external. Roux has even extended these concepts to the strife of the organs within man. But that too is really quite external. Such a principle can only become significant if what happens internally is actually observed and recorded. The strengthening, however, of a human organ, especially an organ in the phylogenetic line, always results from the overcoming of an antipathy. The formation, the actual organic structure, is due to the conquest of antipathies, whereas the continued growth of an organ already in being, is due to indulgence in sympathies.

But there is, of course, a definite limit. Sympathy and antipathy are not only on the tongue and in the eye; but the whole body liberates through and through with sympathies and antipathies; every organ has its special sympathies and antipathies. An organ can develop antipathy to the very forces that built and formed it at a certain stage. It owes its upbuilding to the very thing to which it becomes antipathetic, when it is completed. This leads us deeper into the phylogenetic realm; it leads us to take into world provokes all antipathetic reaction from inside; there is an internal resistance, a discharge so to speak of antipathy. But by this very reaction the progressive perfection of the organisation is brought about. In the realm of the organism he succeeds best in the struggle for existence who is best able to conquer inner antipathies and to replace them by organs. This conquest is part of the process of further development of the organs.

When we consider this aspect we are offered an important clue for the further estimate of actual dosage of remedies. You see in the process of organ formation itself a continuous oscillation between sympathy and antipathy. The genesis of the bodily constitution is dependent on the production of sympathy and antipathy, and their interplay. Moreover smaller dosages of substances used pharmaceutically have the same relation to highly potentised dosages, as sympathy has to antipathy, in the human organism. High potency has the opposite effect from low potency. That is bound up with the whole organising force. And in a certain sense it is also true that factors with a definite action on the organism in the early periods of life, turn their effect into the opposite in later periods; but that these effects in the organism can be shifted out of place. On this displacement is based on the one hand dementia precox as I have already stated, and, on the other, the formation of isolated “soul provinces” which at a later period of life wrongfully encroach on the organisation.

These matters will only be viewed aright if our science itself becomes somewhat spiritualised and we reach the stage of ceasing to try to cure so-called mental disorders by way of the spirit and the soul, but ask ourselves: where is the organic disorder or inadequacy, as this or that so-called mental or soul-sickness becomes apparent? And vice versa—however strange this may sound—in sickness of so-called physical kind there is even more need to examine the conditions of the soul, than in a case of sickness of the soul itself. In the latter class, the phenomena exhibited by the soul help little beyond the diagnosis. We must study these soul phenomena in order to guess where the organic defect can lie. The Ancients have provided for this in their terminology. It was not without purpose that these men of old time connected the picture of that mental disorder hypochondria with a name that sounds wholly materialistic: the bony or cartilaginous character of the abdomen. They would never have sought for the primary cause of the psychological unbalance—even when the hypochondria develops to actual insanity—anywhere except in some sickness of the lower bodily sphere. We must of course progress to the point of being able to regard all so-called material things as spiritual. We suffer severely today, simply because materialism is the continuation of medieval Catholic asceticism in the region of thought. This asceticism despised nature, and sought to attain to spiritual realms by an attitude of condemnation. Those who hold the modern world conception have extracted from the ascetic point of view just what they find convenient, and have no doubt that all the processes of the lower abdomen are crudely material and need not be seriously considered. But the truth is very different: the spirit works in all these things—and we need to know just how the spirit works there. If I bring the spirit which works within the organism together with the spirit acting in some external object or substance—the two spiritual forces collaborate. We must cease to despise nature, and learn again to regard to the whole external world as permeated with the spirit symptom and one of great value for the whole reform of medical thinking that just at the high tide of materialism there has arisen the custom of using hypnotic and other forms of suggestion in treating abnormal conditions in the individual? Things which seem at the opposite pole to materialism have come into favour in the materialistic age, when people had lost the possibility of learning the spiritual aspects of quicksilver, of antimony, of silver and of gold. That is the crux of the matter; the loss of the power to learn about the spirit of material things; and from this loss arises the attempt to treat spiritual ailments as spiritual only, just as in the psycho-analytic doctrines where it is attempted to direct the spirit as such. Sound views must again prevail on the subject of the spiritual attributes of matter.

It is one of the chief services of the nineteenth century to have held alive this acknowledgment of the spiritual permeation of external material things. One of the most important services; for external medicine of the allopathic school has unfortunately tended more and more to believe that one is only concerned with material, i.e., external-material effects and processes in the “extra-human” substances. Today on the one hand, in the diagnosis of so-called physical disorders, attention should be given to the state of the soul, and on the other, i.e., in abnormal soul states, the physical disturbances should be examined. Physical sicknesses should always prompt the inquiry: “what is the temperament of the person in whom they appear?” Suppose we find the sufferer is of hypochondriacal nature, that alone should be an indication for treatment of the lower organic sphere, with materially effective remedies, that is with low potencies. If we find that apart from the illness, the patient is of active mind or “sanguine,” it will be necessary to use high potencies from the outset of treatment. In short, the state of the soul is something that needs study and co-ordination when we consider bodily sickness. The total constitution of the soul is up to a certain point already obvious in the child; dementia præcox will not easily supervene if the child does not exhibit a phlegmatic disposition, that is to say the temperamental tendency appropriate to a much later stage in life, and then only to a limited degree. But still more important is it to recognise the disposition to inner activity or inner passivity. Only consider—if we work through so-called psychic treatment by means of suggestion we are placing the human being wholly in the sphere of influence of another. We repress his activity. But suppression of activity and of inner initiative gives rise to something even in outer life, which is important for the whole course of life. It appears externally in childhood and reacts on the whole dental condition, in later years as well. We shall deal further with this subject tomorrow.

Now I can come to the conclusion that for myself as an individual it is necessary to avoid certain foodstuffs, and to partake of others; I can choose a certain diet for myself—and it is important to bear this in mind, following what has already been said regarding the choice of food. And that diet can do me much good. But there is a very appreciable difference according to whether I adopt this diet as a result of individual experiment or simply accept what the doctor prescribes for me. Please do not take offense at this rather blunt statement. For the materialistic approach, it may well seem a matter of indifference, and equally beneficial, whether the diet that suits me has been instinctively chosen by myself, has been worked out experimentally by myself, perhaps at the physician's suggestion, but with individual initiative, or else has been prescribed for me by a physician. The ultimate result is seen in the fact that the diet prescribed by the physician will be of benefit in the beginning, but will have the disadvantage of leading in old age to mental degeneration more easily than would be the case with an active collaboration in questions of diet; this helps to keep the mind active and mobile into old age—of course, other factors play their part. The interplay of activity and passivity is much impaired in all “treatments by suggestion,” for such treatments imply not only giving up judgment, and doing what another prescribes, but also even the direction of the will itself. The guidances and impact on the will should only be employed in cases where we can assure ourselves that the impairment is not an injury to the person in question, because of other factors; and in fact that it is doing them a greater service to treat them for a while on “suggestive” lines. In general, however, spiritual science finds it necessary to emphasise the healing elements and effects in the material substances, in the atmospheric conditions, and in the movements and functions of the human organism itself; in short in all that cannot be termed spiritual influence proper, but must proceed actively from the consciousness or subconsciousness with the initiative of the patient himself. All these considerations are so crucial because they are the most of all sinned against in the age of materialism, and because the prevalent attitude has been so infectious as to have extended to pedagogy, where we may already experience the terrible abuse of all manner of hypnotic and suggestive tendencies. Their introduction into pedagogy is of appalling augury; and perhaps one will only be able to see clearly in this direction by answering the question: What is the effect of such exercises on the human organism as stimulate it to an awakening, instead of lulling into sleep? Just as when man falls asleep, movements are carried out in his imagination which are not followed by the will, just as the sleeper sinks into repose so far as the external world is concerned, while his consciousness is in motion, so the exact opposite occurs in the case of Eurhythmy. In Eurhythmy the reverse of the sleep condition is brought about; the consciousness awakens more vividly, as compared to its usual state. The hypertrophies of imagination typical of the dream, are dispersed and in their stead a sound and vigorous current of volition is sent through the limbs. The organised will is driven into the limbs. Study the different effects of Eurhythmic vowel forming on the lower and the upper human being respectively, and then again observe the effect of Eurhythmic formation of consonants on the upper and lower man, and you will realise that we may also seek a valuable therapeutic element in Eurhythmy itself.

I think that it may after all be necessary to introduce into our medical and biological study what we might term an inquiry into tho real origins of pathological conditions. Of late there has been a cumulative tendency to disregard the origins proper, and to fix attention on superficial appearances and events. And with this superficiality is bound up the habit in current medicine and pathology of beginning the description of a disease by stating what bacillus caused the disease by invading the human organism. Of course it is very easy to refute arguments and objections against the invasion of micro-organisms, for the simple reason that we no longer need to point out that these micro-organisms really exist. And since they have different characteristics in different diseases, it is again quite comprehensible that stress is laid on these differences, and specific diseases linked with specific types of micro-organisms.

Now an obvious error enters this whole point of view, namely, that attention is diverted from the primary element. Suppose that in the course of an illness, bacteria appear in considerable numbers in some bodily area. It is only natural that they should cause symptoms such as are the result of any foreign body in the organism, and that from the presence of these bacteria all manner of inflammations arise. But if all these results are ascribed wholly to the action of the bacteria, attention is actually directed only to the activity of these micro-organisms. Attention is thus drawn away from the true origin of the disease, for whenever lower organisms find suitable soil in the human frame for development, that soil has been made suitable by the real primary causes of the disease. And attention must be directed to the region of these primary causes. We must therefore return to the paths of thought we have already traversed and for a short time give them our attention.

Consider the stratum of plant life that covers the earth's soil, i.e. the entire content of vegetation. We must understand that this flora which grows outwards from the soil towards cosmic space, is not only sent out from the earth, but is also drawn outwards by forces that are in continuous operation, and as essential to the growth of plants as the forces working from the earth itself. There is a constant interaction between the forces passing into the plant from the earth, and those acting on the plant from the cosmos outside the earth. What is the essential factor in this interaction that permeates our whole environment? Should these cosmic forces attain their full expression and take full possession of the plant, and should the planets not ensure that these forces can withdraw again, then the plant in its growth from the stalk to the blossom and seed would have the perpetual tendency to become animal. There is a tendency towards animalisation. But this tendency, which expresses Cosmic forces passing into the plant, is counteracted and balanced by the opposite tendency towards suppression of the plant-nature in mineralisation.

I would thus emphasise the essential nature of plants: it holds the balance between the tendency to salification, to the deposit of mineral constituents within the vegetable substance, i.e., to mineralisation; and on the other hand to self-ignition, to animalisation. This is what is perpetually at work in external nature.

This same counteraction, however, goes on, interiorised and centralised, in the human organism itself. By virtue of its lungs the human organism is a genuine earth in miniature, and all the pulmonary processes work downwards in the same manner as the forces of earth work upwards into the plant, passing from the earth to the plant's organisation. All that comes to meet the inner metabolism of the lungs, from the breathing and heart activity, has the same method of operation as the external cosmic forces.

Now there is a special requirement of the human organism: all that is focused from out of the organism, in the heart's action, must be held apart from the forces that organise and concentrate themselves in the internal metabolism of the lungs. These two sets of activities may only interact through the barrier—if I may so express myself—of an etheric or even an astral diaphragm. They must be kept separate from one another. And so we come to the question: Does this diaphragm—and I only use the term in order to give a picture—really exist? Is there such a diaphragm, which prevents the activities of head, throat and lungs from blending with those of abdomen and breast, except through the external rhythm of the breath? Yes—there is such a diaphragm, and it is nothing less than the rhythm of breathing itself. Here you find the attunement of the upper with the lower sphere in man. What is termed rhythmic activity in man, the rhythmic pulsation, whose external physical manifestation is in the rhythm of the breathing, continues into the etheric and astral activities and holds apart the telluric forces of the upper human being, which centre in the lung, and the cosmic forces of the lower human being. The latter forces, with their expression ultimately in the heart, work upwards from below, just as cosmically they work from the periphery inwards, towards the earth's centre.

Suppose now that this rhythm is disturbed and does not work normally. In that case, the symbolic diaphragm, to which I have referred—which has no physical existence, but which results from the interplay of the rhythms—is not in order. Then there may ensue a process analogous to excessive action of the earth on vegetation. If the earth's saline action on plants became excessive, the plants would become too mineral. And the result is that the etheric plant inserted into the lung, that grows out of the lung so to speak as the physical plant springs from the soil becomes the cause of pulmonary sclerosis. Thus we find that the trend of the plant towards mineralisation may become excessive even in the organism of man.

And the contrary trend towards animalisation may also exceed normality. When this happens, a region is created in the upper portion of the organism which should not exist. In this region the affected organs are embedded as in an etheric sphere, and this favours the multiplication of what should not multiply in our organism, namely the minute forms of life between animal and plant. We need not trouble to inquire whence they come. We need only interest ourselves in the factors which create a favourable sphere of life for them. This favourable sphere of life should not exist for them. It should not arise as a specially enclosed sphere; it should permeate and operate throughout the whole organism. If it does so, it sustains the life of the whole organism. If it works only within a small enclosure, it becomes the appropriate medium for the presence and multiplication of little plant-animals, of microscopic forms of life, which can be detected in much—if not in all—that causes illness in man's upper organic sphere.

So in going back to the rhythmic activity and its disturbance we must trace the emergence of a special area within the organism, and thus solve the riddle of the working of bacilli in it. But unless we go back to the spiritual causes, we shall not reach the solution of the riddle.

Just the same processes as work on the life of plants—in the external sphere of the earth that is to say—are also at work in the same region on the external life of animals and of man. These forces here (see Diagram 27—orange) at work on animal and man, come from the extra-telluric cosmos, and are met and opposed by forces that come from within. The latter, coming from the interior of the earth, are localised in man in certain organs of the upper bodily sphere; whilst the forces that pour on to the earth from outside are localised in man in organs belonging to the lower bodily sphere, again, if I may so express myself, a dividing wall must be set up between the two forms of action. The regulation of this separation is normally achieved through the activity of the spleen, and in this connection we again find rhythm active in the human organism, but a rhythm different from that of respiration. The rhythm of the breath is in short pulsations, and it continues throughout life; it must be in order, if illnesses of the upper sphere—or such diseases as can affect that upper sphere only—are not to develop. Bear in mind that there may be illnesses which affect the upper sphere yet have their original in the lower—for the process of digestion extends both above and below. This we must clearly realise. We cannot picture man divided diagrammatically into compartments, but the various members interpenetrating one another. At the same time, there must be a barrier between that which works from above as though coming from the earth, and that which works upwards from below, as though from celestial space. For we do indeed send the forces of our lower sphere out against those of our upper, and there must be a regulated rhythm for each human individuality between these two sets of forces; a rhythm manifesting in a proper alternation between waking and sleeping. Every time we wake, there is in a certain way the one beat of this rhythm, and every time we sleep, there is the other beat. And this rhythm of waking-sleeping waking-sleeping, is intersected with other minor rhythmic oscillations which are due to the fact that in the waking state, we wake in our upper sphere but sleep in our lower. There is a continuous rhythmic systole interplay, between the upper and lower man, which is only captured so to speak in major rhythms through the alternation of waking and sleeping.

Now suppose that the barrier set up by this rhythm between the upper and lower man is broken through. What happens in such a case? As a general rule, what happens is that the activities of the upper sphere break through into the lower. This means that an etheric breach takes place. The forces that should only act etherically in the upper organic sphere of man penetrate downward into the lower. It is a breaking through of more subtle forces; but by this fact a special area is created in the abdomen, which should not be localised there, but should permeate the whole body. The result is a species of poisoning, a toxication of the lower abdominal regions. The functions proper to the lower abdominal sphere can no longer be adequately performed under this intrusion of the upper sphere. Moreover, this new sphere creates a favourable condition for lower organisms of the type intermediate between animal and plant. So you may sum up as follows: Through the downward escape of forces from the upper sphere, something is provoked in man that becomes abdominal typhus. The creation of this atmosphere provides, as a by-product, the suitable soil for the typhus bacilli.

In this way you have a clear-cut distinction between what is primary and what is secondary. You will realise that it is necessary to distinguish between the original causes of such illness and the secondary phenomena, which are simply inflammatory and due to the proliferation of legions of intestinal fauna—or flora, especially in the smaller intestine. All the physical manifestations include the working of the bacilli whether vegetable or animal—we need not trouble ourselves with their precise origin—for they could neither in the smaller intestine represent the reaction to this escape of the upper activities of the human organism into the lower activities. These physical manifestations include the working of the bacilli whether vegetable or animal—we need not trouble ourselves with their precise origin—for they could neither vegetate nor “animalise” if an atmosphere had not been suitably prepared. All this is a result, a secondary phenomenon. And the curative effect must be sought not in the treatment of the secondary manifestations but of the primary. We shall discuss this later, for it is only possible to speak about these things if one is in a position to trace their true causes. This is hardly possible within the boundaries of the official medicine of today for current medicine excludes a point of view that passes from the material process to that of the spirit. But beneath and behind all material existence, there is spirit. And you will easily envisage the symptomatology of typhus abdominalis if you keep in mind what has just been put before you. Remember that this particular disease is very often accompanied by disturbances of consciousness. The symptoms of pulmonary catarrh appear because the upper sphere is deprived of what emerges in the lower. In the same way, the organs mediating consciousness in the upper human sphere, can no longer work properly if what should be mediator to their activity has broken through into the lower sphere. If you once grasp this primary causation, you will have the whole picture of typhus abdominalis before you.

The whole series of external and apparently independent symptoms, which otherwise are only perceived from without, so to speak, become so clearly evident that they might almost be painted in their inner relationships. And in certain circumstances, the human consciousness may be so strongly impressed that there arises an urge to objectify prophetically this picture before it portrays itself in the organism. In such cases, a person will feel compelled to depict or symbolise the elements of which his upper organic sphere is deprived, by painting blue spots of colour on the wall, and to represent the elements of which the lower sphere is deprived by spots of red. In the case of an individual with a belief that his vocation is art, as distinct from tailoring or shoemaking, but with little knowledge of the craftsmanship of painting, you may find that if at the same time he is robust enough to repress the constantly arising tendency to diseases of the lower abdomen, these diseased conditions are exteriorised and “thrown off” on wall or canvas, instead of developing internally. The paintings of the expressionist school supply examples of this remarkable activity. Examine much of what comes to light in these paintings, in the red and yellow colors; there you can trace the painter's condition in the lower abdominal sphere. And in the blue and blue-violet parts you can find a clue to his condition in the upper bodily sphere, in the lungs, and all that moves rhythmically upwards towards the head. If you study such things carefully, they will lead you to discover a remarkable harmony between the general type of action of a given individual and his internal organisation. You will be in a position to form a certain intuitive impression of the functional conditions of his body from his way of living and behaving. For as a matter of fact it is wholly erroneous to believe that the soul activity of a man in the external world, through actions and behaviour, is only connected with his nervous system. It is connected with the whole man, and is an image of the whole man. We can grasp intuitively in children how man's intellectual part behaves and how it strives towards the later age. We only have to consider, e.g., how somebody may be doomed in later life to cope with all the embarrassments of an arrested growth; and how in childhood he showed plainly that the forces that did not allow him to complete his growth make him clumsy and rough in his behaviour. From the way in which the child behaves, as for instance whether he puts his feet lightly on the ground or strongly, you may form an intuitive picture of the way of its growth. Numerous other manifestations suggest that the whole gesture and behaviour of the individual is nothing else than the interplay of internal organic parts, transferred into movement.

It would indeed seem wise to include these subjects in the medical curriculum. When a medical student is about twenty the most favourable conditions obtain for this kind of knowledge. In the thirties one loses this gift; it becomes harder to enter into these things. But it is possible to educate and train oneself to enter into such intuitive knowledge. In spite of the devastating routine of the intermediate and later states of our university education, it is possible (by means of a return to the forces active in childhood) to train this insight into the human being. But if organised medical study attached due weight to the more intimate aspects of plastic anatomy and physiology, it would be of immense assistance in the whole treatment of mankind.

So too must those diseases which can appear as epidemics be studied according to their primary causes. To take an example: in all persons with a disposition to disturbance and damage of the head and breast rhythms, which find their crudest expression in the respiratory rhythm, there is a tendency to be much affected by a certain atmospheric and extra-telluric conditions. Others again, in whom the respiratory system is congenitally sound, are able to resist such influences. Of course we must make allowances for additional influences, and other factors of a complicated kind, but this brief and bare outline may make the principle understood.

Let us suppose a winter season, in which there is a powerful influence on the solar activity—and note please, not the operation of light, but the solar action—through the outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A constellation of that description in the winter operates quite differently from the unimpeded action of the Sun, when Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are at a greater distance. In such a winter the atmospheric conditions will differ from the norm; and there will be a remarkable influence (on persons constitutionally so disposed) upon the rhythmical activity between chest and head, of which the most conspicuous is the act of breathing itself. We may state, however, that such cosmic conditions considerably strengthen the inclination to make this rhythm regular in people who have been born from sound conditions, and who are inwardly robust—though their external appearance may be very slight and delicate. In the case of such persons the respiratory rhythm is very well regulated and so also is the whole rhythm between chest and head. Such a stabilised inner rhythm is not easily disturbed from outside; serious injuries are required to affect it. But on persons with an irregularity of this rhythm, the external influences referred to work very strongly to disturb still more the already disturbed rhythm. Thus everyone with this disposition and resident in those parts of the earth under the special influence of the constellation in question, become liable to the complaints grouped as influenza and grippe. These conditions and factors must be in operation, in order to create favourable soil for such ailments as influenza.

The following example is of a more complex nature. The whole rhythmic activity within man is a unity; although the one continuous rhythm which has its crudest expression in breathing, and that other and wider rhythm determined by the alternation of sleep and waking, form a separate unity in themselves. It may come to pass that owing to a weakness of the upper rhythm in breathing, that other and wider rhythm determined by the alternation of sleep and waking, form a separate unity in themselves. It may come to pass that owing to a weakness of the upper rhythm (between chest and head), the lower rhythm becomes relatively too pronounced. It follows that the upper process, already enfeebled and out of gear, is made more so by the powerful impact of the lower, which is focused in the splenetic function, as well as in others of which we shall treat later. If this lower rhythm is working too strongly upwards, it causes a tendency to a kind of hypertrophy of the upper digestive process, with all its sequelæ. Again a most favourable sphere is created for certain lower organisms. There ensue phenomena of inflammation and paralysis in the upper organisation, even rudiments of organic malformation, new organic formations; in short we have the picture of diphtheria. Diphtheria might be termed a sort of break through from below upwards, an inversion of the typhus breaking through from above downwards, and its main origin is as I have described. Of course, in all these conditions, the age of the individual must be taken into account.

You need only keep in mind that during childhood the whole interaction of the upper and lower spheres, and of the rhythmic action that links the two, must differ widely from that of later life; e.g., during childhood there must be much more powerful and pronounced action of the upper human being upon the lower than in maturity. Actually the child “thinks” very much more than does the adult. This may sound strange but it is true; only, the thoughts of the child are not conscious thoughts, they are absorbed into the organism, manifesting in its growth and formation. Especially in the earliest years of life, thinking activity is used mainly for the formative processes of the growing body. Then there comes a stage wherein the body does not need to use up so much of the formative forces, and thus they are, as it were, dammed back, and become the fundamental forces of memory. So memory emerges only when the organism requires less formative force for itself. The forces which supply the organic foundation of memory are the transformed growth forces and formative forces plastically at work at the beginning of life. Everything is fundamentally based on metamorphosis. That which we observe as a spiritual element, is only the re-spiritualisation of what worked in a more bodily way when the spirit incarnated into the material. So it can be understood that there must be strong defensive forces in the child to cope with particular processes of the lower abdominal sphere. This sphere is the special scene of action for cosmic-celestial forces, that is to say, for extra-terrestrial forces.

Now turn again to the regions outside the earth; let us assume that a special constellation results from the position of Sun and planets, which gives rise to a powerful reflection in the lower abdominal organs of man. What will be the result? It will be relatively unimportant in adults, for in them the upper and lower organic rhythms have reached a certain equipoise. But in children there will of necessity be a vigorous resistance to the cosmic conditions that seek a mirror and replica in the abdominal parts. So if the cosmic configurations act forcibly on the lower abdominal sphere in the child, the upper bodily sphere must defend itself with all its powers. From the convulsive exertion of powers which should not be used so much in the immature upper organic sphere, Cerebral Meningitis can result—Meningitis cerebro-spinalis epidemica. Here, then, you have an illustrative example of the influx of such diseases into man from extra-human nature. If you keep these origins in the background of your thought, as it were, you will be able to reconstruct the whole clinical picture of meningitis, including the typical rigidity of the muscles in the nape of the neck. For this strain and effort of the upper organic sphere in the child, is bound to lead to inflammatory states of the upper organs in the membranes of the brain and spinal cord, and these acute inflammations provoke the other symptoms typical of meningitis.

We need above all to sharpen our perception for seeing and as a whole both as regards the interactions of his organic parts, and as regards the interactions of human functions with the external world, and even with the extra-terrestrial world. These hints are not meant to increase the meddling with horoscopes and so on, which I consider the greatest nonsense in the form it takes today; but we should realise the origin of the forces in question; such knowledge is necessary for the healing art. It is not so important to be able to trace this or that condition to the quartile aspect of such and such stars—that knowledge can sometimes help towards a cosmic diagnosis, but the main matter for us is to be able to cure. So tomorrow I propose to pass from our present inquiry to the consideration of substances in external nature that are defensive, i.e., contain defensive powers against the extra-telluric influences pouring into the human organism. It would seem necessary that this distinction between the upper and lower organic spheres in man should receive recognition in medicine, for I suggest that such recognition would promote greater co-operation within the profession in the interests of human health. Too often, a physician loses interest in man as a whole, if he specialises in one direction. Far be it from me to suggest that physicians should not specialise; the manifold technique evolved in the course of time, necessitates a certain amount of specialisation. But if specialisation has occurred, then, as an equipoise, the socialisation, the co-operation of the specialising experts should steadily increase.

This becomes obvious if we study a condition on which a question has been put: Pyorrhœa alveolaris, the inflammation of the alveolar rim. If pyorrhœa develops, it is not solely owing to some local cause, as many suppose, but it is due to a tendency of the whole organism, a tendency localised only in the mouth and teeth. If it were accepted as part of the professional routine that dentists who observed the onset of this condition were somehow to suggest to physicians that the patient suffering from this particular alveolar inflammation was very probably also liable to diabetes, much good could be done. For that same process—already outlined in these lectures—which manifests as diabetes, is also (while it remains localised in the upper sphere and amenable to treatment) the germ of Pyorrhœa alveolaris. It is far too little realised that the lower sphere can, as it were, seize or invade the upper; and in consequence there is either an impoverishment or an undue augmentation of the one sphere or of the other. If the inflammatory tendency is first manifest in the upper sphere, one form of disease ensues; if first manifest in the lower sphere, there ensues its polar opposite. So very much depends on this knowledge.

It will therefore also be readily understood that the whole etheric body, containing the forces of growth in man, must work differently in childhood and in maturity. In childhood, the etheric body must intervene much more in the physical functions; and must have organs as its direct points of attack, so to say. It is especially necessary in the foetal stage that the etheric body should have these points for direct working upon the physical; but the need persists in early childhood, when there is not only organic formation, but growth as well, and during growth the plastic activity must be exercised. Hence the need for organs such as the thymus gland, for instance (and even to some extent the thyroid as well); these have their greatest task in childhood, and then enter on a phase of regression, and if too much seized upon by the physical forces, degenerate during the retrogressive phase. During childhood, there must of necessity be a powerful chemism at work within the body, which is replaced, at a later stage, by the working of warmth. One might say that during the life of the individual, man passes through something of which the prismatic spectrum is a symbol: inasmuch as we observe the more strongly chemical extremity (blue and violet), and then the luminous portion (green and yellow), finally the other extremity, connected with heat (red). For man experiences constitutional changes of this nature and in this direction. (see Diagram 27). During childhood, the human being is more dependent on activities working chemically, then passes on to those which act through light, and those acting through warmth. The organs which enable the etheric body to promote the chemism in the physical body, are such glands as the thyroid and thymus. On the activity of these organs (to which in a certain sense the chemism is bound) there also depends the particular individual complexion and skin colouring—that is to say, on the etheric activity behind the physical organs. Among the functional offices of the adrenal glands is the determination of the complexion, and if the adrenals degenerate there must be changes in pigmentation in consequence. As an example you need only consider what is known as Addison's Disease, arising from degenerative conditions in the adrenal glands—when the whole skin becomes brown. All this strongly indicates a certain chemism in the human organism. It is at work more especially in the foetus, while the action of light has more importance after approximately fourteen years of age. And then appear the activities connected with the life of warmth. Here we have a most significant indication and gauge for the whole course of human life. The period of childhood, and before birth, especially the latter, the foetal stage, represents a certain predominance of the salt-process; early middle life is predominantly a mercurial process and later life and old age, in the relation referred to, represent a kind of sulphur process. This implies that in childhood most attention should be paid to the salt-process, in middle life to the mercurial, and in later life to the sulphuric or phosphoric, and these require regulation. Here again, if you realise this triad of organising chemism—organised light process, organised mercurial process and organised saline process at work in the human organism, you will gain a conception of the manner in which the whole of life works on man, organising him. The manner of life—not only the diet, but the whole habit and action of life—operates chemically on the child, impinging strongly upon the organism; the even more strong light process has such a great influence on the very young, that it sows a seed that may even manifest in disorders of the soul. In youth, man is most sensitively receptive to all the impressions of the external world. Whether at this stage of life we encounter an external world formed regardless of reason and logic, or one which is formed according to reason and logic, has a great significance for the whole constitution of the soul in later life. We shall go further into this in the next lecture, passing from the pathological aspects just considered, to the therapeutic.

In these two final lectures I shall try to deal with as many as possible of the questions before us. In a preliminary outline, such as has been offered in this series, the main purpose is to learn more accurately, in the way that can be given by Spiritual Science, the path taken within the human organism by substances external to man, and also their counter-effects. If we have a complete bird's eye view, as it were, of the way in which any substance operates, we have at the same time an indication of its therapeutic value, and can use our own judgment. To use individual judgment is far better than to keep to prescriptions which say that is for this and the other for that. On this occasion, I shall again start from something apparently remote, in order to reach something very near to us all. Among the written questions put to me, one continually reappears, and it must, of course, be of interest to you all—the question of heredity in general. Both in judging healthy—or at least relatively healthy—persons and the sick, it plays an extremely important part.

In the materialistic biology of the present day this heredity is only studied in a very abstract manner. Certainly it is not studied in such a way as to provide much practical use in life. But if we give it earnest and careful study, we shall find it remarkable (at least to the exoteric student, whereas the esoterist knows it as an obvious law) that all that mankind needs to know about the world and its relations, reveals itself somewhere in an externally visible form. There is always something that reveals externally those secret but—for mankind—most effective forces of nature. And if we investigate heredity we must keep that very specially in mind for on the other hand all the factors associated with heredity are continually confused and concealed by illusions, so that sound judgment becomes most difficult. If a judgment is formed on a question of heredity, there are always other phenomena to which it does not apply. For indeed, the facts of heredity are wrapped in the most powerful illusions which spring from the character of its law. But the very nature of this law implies that its regularity does not always become obvious. The manifestations of heredity follow a pattern of law, but one very hard to regulate. Just as the horizontal position of the arms of a balance depends on a special law, but is upset by adding to the weight of one side or the other, so that the law is difficult to regulate—so is it also, we may say, with the operation of heredity. It is a similar to that of the horizontal tendency of the scales; but it is sealed through a wide range of varying manifestations. This is due to the fact that always in heredity different elements, male and female, play their parts. The male always transmits what man owes to earthly existence, what he owes to earth-forces; whereas the female organism is more apt to transmit the cosmic influence from beyond the earth. We might express this difference as follows. Earth makes continual demands on the man; the earth organises his forces. Earth is the cause from which the male sexuality originates. On woman the heavens, as it were, make continual demands; they cause her shape, and prevail in all the internal processes of her organisation. This contrast may remind you of something already touched upon in these discussions. Now there follows this result; suppose a female being comes into existence through conception, and develops; it is inclined to become more and more attuned to the extra-terrestrial processes, to be taken up as it were by the heavens. If a male being develops it becomes more and more inclined to be taken hold of by the earth. Thus heavens and earth actually co-operate, for neither acts exclusively nor on one sex alone, but in the female the arm of the scale rises towards the heavens and in the male it inclines to the terrestrial. It is a strict law but is subject to variation, and hence arises the following result. In woman, the organism includes internal tendencies which wage permanent contest with the terrestrial elements. But the strange thing is that this only holds good with regard to her own individual organism, and not in the terms of life and the seed. This contest between cosmic and telluric forces is restricted in woman to all the processes apart from the formation of the ovule, that is to say from the organs which serve the functions of reproduction. Thus woman continually withdraws her organisation from the inherent forces of reproduction; the organs surrounding the reproductive tract are continually kept back. And we might say that there is a tendency to transmit through the male what is contained in the reproductive forces and can therefore be inherited. In woman there is a tendency to withdraw from this heredity—and concurrently in her own oogenous powers there is the stronger tendency of inheritance.

So we must ask how the human community can counteract the destructive forces of heredity? For we know, do we not, that heredity finds no barrier between the spiritual and the physical. For instance, in families subject to mental disorders, these may alternate in successive generations with diabetes; there is thus a metamorphosis which swings to and fro. Therefore it is a matter of immense urgency to find out how to shield mankind from the ravages of heredity. The chief preventative measure is first and foremost to do everything to preserve and improve the health of women, for in that case, the extra-telluric influence is drawn more actively into our earth process, and those processes which work continuously to transmit the harmful influences of heredity through the germ, can be combatted through the maternal organism. Thus a community which gives thought and care to the health of their women, wages war against the harmful influence which springs from the earth-forces in heredity, by means of an appeal to the forces proceeding from outside the earth, and acting as a counterbalance. For these cosmic celestial forces have, as it were, their earthly accumulator solely in the organism of a woman. This is most important, and holds good for all forces of telluric and cosmic origin; it is universally true. It becomes conspicuously evident in the case of hæmophiliacs, of so-called “bleeders.” It would be well if there were less vague talk about heredity, and more study where concrete facts point unmistakably to its operation. Observe this as shown among “bleeders.” You will find a striking phenomenon, known to you all, and illustrating what I have just pointed out. In the family descent among hæmophiliacs bleeding itself only appears in males, but the transmission of the illness occurs only through females. A woman whose father was a hæmophiliac, though she does not exhibit the disease herself, is liable to bequeath it to her male descendants. She gets it because she is part of the family. The males, however, become bleeders. But if these marry women free from hæmophiliac descent, the disease is not transmitted.

If you analyse the aforesaid facts, you will find a striking concrete expression of my statements, and indeed the facts of hæmophilia are far clearer proofs than all the recent experiments by Weismann, etc., of what happens in heredity. And they are also important for the general judgment of the human bodily organisation; this organisation must be to some degree estimated in the light of that which is apt to influence it.

What is the actual basis of hæmophilia? This can in fact be detected by superficial consideration. The blood does not coagulate properly, so that the slightest external scratch or prick may cause the hæmophiliac to bleed to death; they may die from attacks of nose bleeding, or the extraction of a tooth, for what would lead to coagulation in other persons does not do so in the case of a hæmophiliac. So the blood of these persons must possess some constituent or quality, which counteracts the power of coagulation. If this quality exists in too potent a degree, it is not neutralised by the external forces which begin to work from outside when the blood coagulates. For coagulation of the blood is caused by forces working from outside. If the blood possesses a quality which does not allow these external forces to prevail, there is an excessive tendency to fluidity of the blood.

It is easy to detect that a strong tendency to excessive fluidity is connected with the whole formation of the human ego. And not superficially but deeply, and with that which manifests in the human ego as will, not with that which manifests as “Ideation.” The constitutional tendency to excessive fluidity in the human blood is associated with all that either strengthens or debilitates the human will. And there is a fine historical example which proves that certain of nature's secrets are accessible to a proper interpretation. Both history and science are aware of the Engadine case; you will probably know it—the case of those two young girls of the Engadine district who have furnished us with a light on some profound—and medically helpful—aspects of human nature. Both of these young women came of hæmophiliac stock, and both formed and kept the steadfast and courageous resolution to refrain from marriage. So they have their place in history as personal champions of the fight against hereditary hæmophilia.

Of course we must lay stress on the real core of this case. It is certainly not peculiar to all the girls in hæmophiliac families to withdraw in this way from propagation. For such a course of action a strong subjective will must be developed; just the kind of strong subjective will that operates in the ego, and not in the astral body. Such a peculiar will power must have distinguished both of those young women. They must have both had something in their egos, in their power of will, that was connected in some manner with the forces operative in bleeders. If such forces are augmented in a conscious way, this could be done more easily in such cases than in persons who are non-bleeders. A just estimate of this interaction leads us to look into the specific forces and properties of the blood and their interplay with the extra-human world. And in studying those properties of blood that are associated with the conscious will, we can learn something of the general connection between the human will and the forces external to man. Certain of these external forces have a particular inner kinship with the forces of the human will, a kinship based on the course of evolution for the very last to be separated out in the natural realm, has been all that is connected with the conscious will of mankind. That is the latest precipitation to emerge in the realm of nature.

Let us now study something in external nature which is among the creations by which nature framed mankind, and which shows by its inherent qualities its association with that formative process of humanity. A substance of that description has long been a subject of study, and there are great difficulties in surveying the results because it is hard to make the forces preserved by atavistic medicine into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries active still in the intellectual modern man. The substance thus studied was antimony and all that is linked with it. Antimony is a most remarkable substance; it has attracted the most profound attention from all who have had much to do with it, including the legendary Basilius Valentinus. Certain attributes of this substance will reveal the peculiar manner in which it is interwoven with the whole process of nature. Consider, for example, what is perhaps the least of antimony's attributes: its extraordinary affinity to other metals and other non-metallic substances, so that it often appears in combination with other substances, especially with sulphur compounds. Now we have already touched on the specific operation of sulphur in this respect and antimony tends to appear together with the sulphur compounds of other substances. This inclination of antimony shows how it is interwoven in the nature-process. Yet another quality is even more significant. Whenever possible, it forms sheafs of needle-shaped crystals. That is, its urge is along a straight line, outwards and away from the earth. Whenever antimony collects longitudinally, we behold the lines along which the forces of crystallisation are directed from outer space to the earth. For the formative forces in crystallisation which generally work in more regular patterns, produce in antimony the spear-shaped and sheaflike structures. In this way antimony reveals how it is inserted into the whole of nature. The characteristics of the smelting process also indicate antimony as revealing—or betraying—the forces of crystallisation. By means of the smelting process we can obtain antimony in a delicately fibrous form.

Then there is this further quality: if antimony is exposed to temperatures it can oxidize—burn in a peculiar manner. The white smoke that forms from it reveals a certain kinship to cold bodies and attaches itself to them. The well-known “flowers” of antimony produce something in which the force of crystallisation as it were discharges itself in contact with other bodies.

And the most remarkable of all antimonial properties, is its peculiar form of resistance to all the forces which I have grouped together as sub-terrestrial, in a certain sense; those forces that play through electricity and magnetism. Suppose that we treat antimony with electrolysis, bring it to the cathode, and touch the antimonial deposit on the cathode with a metal point—the antimony produces tiny explosions. This active resistance of antimony to electric processes—if the substance is given a little stimulus—is most characteristic and distinctive, revealing its real position in the whole process of nature, no other substance reveals its interactions so emphatically.

We can only interpret the lessons so graphically presented by that substance, on the supposition that the forces present in nature are working throughout, are in fact ubiquitous; and that if certain substances show their operation to a marked degree, it is because the forces are especially concentrated in those substances. What operates in antimony is present throughout nature; the antimonising power—if we may coin the term—is everywhere. It has also a regulative action in man, so that in normal conditions human beings draw the antimonising force from the extra-telluric sphere. That is to say, mankind draws from the cosmos what in concentrated form is manifested as antimony. In normal conditions man does not have recourse to the antimonising force as present on earth and in its specific concentrated form, but turns towards the external, extra-telluric antimonial force. So we must obviously ask: What is the extra-telluric form of this antimonising force?

Speaking in terms of the planets, it is the co-operation of Mercury, Venus and the Moon. If these three do not operate separately but together their action is not specifically of the nature of mercury, copper or silver; but is comparable with the action of antimony in the earth. And of course this can be and must be investigated, by observing and registering the effects of such constellations upon man—constellations, that is to say, in which the three forces of Moon, Mercury and Venus neutralise each other, through the aspects of opposition or square. If all three are in such an aspect of neutralisation, there is the precise interaction which in the case of antimony is laid hold of by the earth. In all the antimony in and on the earth, the same force is exerted from our planet itself, as is exerted by these three planetary bodies upon the earth.

Here it is necessary to warn against a mistake. The constitution the earth is such as to make it erroneous to refer piecemeal, so to speak, to such substances as antimony. All the antimony on the earth is a unity in the earth's structure, just as all the earth's stores of silver or of gold are unities. If you remove separate lumps of antimony from the earth, you are simply extracting or amputating a part of that antimonial body which is incorporated into the earth. We have now attempted to delineate all the perceptible effect of antimonial action: and here, as everywhere in nature, actions meet counteractions. This oscillation between action and reaction, is just what gives rise to bodily form.

Let us then look for those forces which act counter to the antimonial forces. They reveal themselves if we are able to detect that the antimonial forces act on man at the moment in which something presses outwards which is regulated while within him. It is these antimonial forces which are operative in the coagulation of the blood. Wherever the consistency of the bloodstream shows a tendency to coagulate the antimonising force is active. Wherever the blood tends to withdraw from coagulation the counteracting forces are at work. So that hæmophiliacs manifest the forces antagonistic to antimony curiously enough. And these anti-antimonising forces are identical with those for which I should like to coin the term “albuminising forces,” the albumen forming forces, which work in such a health-giving way—that they promote the formation of albumen. For, let us emphasise once more: the forces that hinder coagulation are the albuminising forces.

Thus we arrive at some knowledge of the relationships between the antimonising and albuminising forces in the human organism. In my belief, careful study of the interplay of these two processes would reap very important harvests of knowledge as regards disease and its cure. For what are the processes which form albumen—the albuminising processes? They are those by virtue of which all that is plastic and formative in nature is incorporated into the human or the animal organism, in order to supply its actual substance. And the antimonising forces are those which, working from the outside, so to speak, take the part of the artist, the sculptor, giving the substance which builds the organs its form.

Thus the antimonial forces have a certain kinship to the internal organising forces of the organs. Please take as a concrete example, one organ, the alimentary canal. It is of course internally organised. You are able to follow up its inner structure, without considering the purpose it serves, or the manner in which food stuffs are carried along it and worked upon. It is possible, that is to say, to separate in the abstract the internal processes of the organ and those that take place in working upon the substance introduced from outside. This is an important separation, for the processes are indeed different. In the organ itself, the antimonising force works in man. For man is actually antimony, if we disregard all the ingredients brought into him from the external world. Man himself is antimony. But the internal organic formative force must not be overloaded with the antimonising force in the normal course of life, for the effect would be excessively stimulating, in fact a form of poisoning. But, if strong stimulation is necessary, we may supply antimony to the organism—which normally must not be supplied. The effect of antimony owing to these peculiar properties, varies greatly according as it is applied from within or without. If it is administered from within it is necessary to dilute it so far as to make it absorbed by the upper bodily sphere of man. If you are thus able to introduce antimony into the upper sphere, it will have an amazing stimulant effect on disturbed organ formations and internal organic processes. Thus very fine potencies of antimony can be most useful in certain forms of typhus or typhoid.

In the other case the effect is somewhat different, and is achieved by using lower potencies of antimony externally, in ointments, salves, and so forth. There may be occasions when it is desirable to have recourse to higher potencies in external application; but as a general rule, external application will have their beneficial effect in lower potencies.

This remedial substance is an extremely useful remedy in many different directions. It is at work within the law of polarity just referred to, yet shows constant slight oscillations. Thence arises a rule that should not be disregarded. Antimony should be administered internally by preference, in the treatment of individuals of very strong will power, and externally by preference, in treating persons of weaker will. Here is a first line of differentiation. Antimony represents, within the mineral realm, a substance with an inner kinship to the human will; that is to say, as the human will becomes more conscious, it feels more inclined to call forth the counter-effects to antimonial action. Human will has a destructive effect on all the forces previously described, constituting the characteristic operation of antimony. On the other hand, all that builds up the human constitution under the influence of thought and especially of unconscious thought—including the still unconscious thought forces at work in the child—all these are supported by the antimonial forces; antimony is, as it were, their ally. Thus if antimony is introduced, by any route, into the human organism and is thus able to exert its own properties, it forms a strong phantom (scaffolding or network) within the body. The internal organic forces are thus stimulated, and there is nothing left for co-operation with the substances brought into the human organism. There follow fits of vomiting and diarrhœa—showing that the effect is confined to the organs, instead of including their surroundings. The same is true in the counteracting process. You will be able to counter injurious effects of antimony in yourself by the methods instinctively employed by people when they want to keep their own circulatory and rhythmic processes regular. They drink coffee, through which the rhythmic processes are made even and harmonious. Please note that I am stating a fact; I make no recommendation here, for it may be very harmful in other ways, to relieve the ego of the task of regulating these human rhythms. If man is not strong enough in his soul to regulate his rhythmic processes, then coffee can bring about a certain harmony. And so in cases of antimonial poisoning coffee acts in some degree an antidote, restoring the rhythms between the working of the inner organic forces and their surrounding. For there is a regular interplay through rhythm. Indeed the real reason for drinking coffee, is to establish a continuous regulation of rhythm between our internal organs and what is happening in their vicinity to the food-stuffs we have consumed.

From this point we are led to inquire into the albuminising processes. These are reinforced—that is to say, all those processes are reinforced that lie on the other side of the dividing line, where there is no longer the inner organising force of the organs, but where they unfold their external digestive activity. All the mechanical processes of the movement of the intestines, and of the other digestive activities, are closely interwoven with the albuminising forces, which are virtually the formative forces of albumen, i.e., the complementary polar opposites of the antimonising forces.

Now I must once more refer to something already dealt with. That is the instructive object of study—or subject, if you like—the shell formation of the oyster. To a somewhat less degree the same occurs in the calcareous secretion in the egg. What is the key to these phenomena? What precisely is an oyster shell and egg shell? It is a product that the oyster or the essential substance of the egg must eject, because were it retained it would kill them. This shell formation is necessary for the preservation of life. And so, when eating oysters, we consume that life process which is manifested externally in the formation of the shells. (I put the facts to you in these simple terms; if I sought to impress current science, more intricate and technical terms would of course be necessary.) In eating the oyster we eat this albuminising process, a process which is the antithesis to the antimonising process. Through its absorption we promote and stimulate all that leads in man to typhoid manifestations. The consumption of oysters is an extraordinarily interesting operation. It activates the formative force, that is the albuminising force, within the human abdomen. This relieves the head, drawing certain forces downwards, so that after eating oysters man feels much less burdened by the forces which tend to work in his head. Oysters empty the head, in a sense. And we have need of developing the albuminising forces continually, for we cannot let our head continually be charged with formative forces. But the habitual epicure in oysters exaggerates this, and strives at all costs for an empty head. By so doing, he increases the possibility of a downward eruption of certain forces towards the abdomen, as I have already described, that is to say he promotes the tendency in the lower organic sphere to diarrhœa and typhoid. And as you will readily perceive, such a condition demands antimonial treatment. There would be good results in stimulating the forces to which appeal must be made, if the typhlitic tendency is to be combated in its innermost stronghold, by administration of antimony externally and internally at the same time; especially rubbing with antimonial ointment and simultaneously taking by the mouth antimony in high potency. These would be mutually regulated and thus react beneficially on the typhlitic tendency.

Such are treatments that attempt to realise man within his whole universal surroundings. The significance of such a method is shown if you investigate man's relationships and reactions to such manifestations in nature as arise from a certain defensive resistance to the direct telluric forces. Plants are able to defend themselves against these direct telluric forces; they store up much of their formative power for their seasons of blossom and seed. Our most frequent type of plant structure, of which most edible plants are examples, is based on the employment of a definite amount of telluric power for the formation of the plant itself. If, however, the plant has a defensive attitude to these telluric forces, it becomes exposed to the extra-telluric forces, when the final processes of fructification and seed-formation ensue; and thus the plant becomes something with an urge to contemplate the world from the same point of vantage as the higher beings of the realms above the vegetable. The plant shows an urge to perceive. But the plant has no specialised structures for that purpose: it remains a plant, and yet it has the urge to develop something analogous to the formation of the human eye. But no eye can develop, in what is, after all, neither a human nor an animal body but the body of a plant. And so the plant becomes a deadly nightshade, Atropa Belladonna. I have tried to show by means of pictures what takes place in the emergence of the fruit of belladonna. That plant has already in its roots the force culminating in the growth of its black berries, and with this it becomes akin to all that urges in the human organism towards moulding the form and beyond. It urges towards things only possible in the sensory sphere, lifting man out of the world of his organisation into the sphere of the senses. A process of extraordinary interest occurs, if small potentised quantities of belladonna are administered. This is because it bears a striking resemblance to the process of awakening from sleep which is still interwoven with dreams. In such an awakening, interspersed with dreams, the process is within the limits of normality. In awakening, when perception has not yet begun but when sense perception is still inwardly potentised to the permeation of the consciousness with dreams, there is actually always a kind of deadly nightshade activity in man. And belladonna poisoning consists in the provocation of this same process that occurs when in awaking dreams still hold their sway; but the process called forth in man by belladonna poison is made lasting, not taken up into consciousness, but the transition phenomena remain. This is the interesting point, that the processes which are caused in man by toxic action, are of such a nature that at the right tempo they are part of the whole human organisation.

As I have already described, the birth of the belladonna means a frantic and excessive urge towards becoming man. And further it might be said that the awakening from sleep in man has something of the nature of an urge towards atropa belladonna: but an urge held in leash and tuned down: confined to the moment of waking. Now suppose you wish to relieve the body of the internal albuminising processes, influencing the organism so that the too powerful albuminising is retarded and the bodily event, so to speak, deflected towards the soul, so that the bodily processes become hallucinations—then give potentised doses of belladonna. Thus you will lift something into the soul, something of which you wish to relieve the body. This is the essence of what we meet in the usual macroscopic operation of belladonna—although here again full of perplexities and illusions, as I have already pointed out. Of course, if you give the human being a shock that prevents the normal passage over from the state of awakening to that of full waking consciousness, and makes permanent the transitional state—well, you kill him. For man is always in danger of death during that brief transition of awakening—but we awake so rapidly that we escape that peril. Such are the interesting inter-actions between what is accepted as normal, and is sound in measure and tempo, and what becomes anti-normal as soon as it exceeds that measure and tempo.

It seems to me that these were the processes that the physicians of old time sought ever and again to pursue. If they spoke of the creation of the Homunculus, they did so because their surviving clairvoyant faculties revealed something resembling the phantom of antimony. For there appeared to them, in the forming process which they carried out in their laboratory when antimony unfolded its forces, something projected into it by their own nature, which fights against the power of antimony as albuminising force. That appeared to them as a definite force. That which normally remains concealed within the human organism, they projected externally, and thus they beheld the Homunculus, who appeared during the various metamorphoses of antimony. What appeared in the interplay of these processes and metamorphoses they saw as the Homunculus.

If the study of medicine is to be continued in a way that gives benefit to mankind, a place must be found for what I have tried to indicate in these chapters: the “thinking together” of the whole human organism, in both sickness and health, with the forces, substances and processes in the external world. Only thus can a bridge be built between the trend of natural science, which becomes more and more exclusively diagnostic and the attempt to provide therapeutic methods and preparations. In order, however, to do this successfully, we must first acquire a general view and conception of man, must illuminate him, as it were, through spiritual science, from the point where man as he is today stands in a certain relation to the outside world. This relation is most highly evolved in the interplay of the external senses with the environment and they have relatively little to do with the internal physical processes of our bodies, as for instance the sense activities of the eye. But as soon as we enter the domain of the lower senses such as smell and taste, we at once perceive how what is external in man connects itself inwardly with the surrounding world. For up to a certain point, man's digestion is nothing but a transformation and continuation of sense-activity. Up to the point where the foodstuffs are passed from the intestinal process to the action of lymph and blood formation—all that occurs is fundamentally a metamorphosis of sense-activity, which is the more organic in its manifestations the lower its evolutionary grade. So that up to the point I have denoted, we must recognise that the digestive process is a continuation of the sense of taste.

Now if such a fact were estimated at its true value, the ground would be prepared, first of all for a whole system of dietetics, and then for the recognition of wholesome and necessary methods of treatment in this region. Gradually, too, we should be able to recognise injuries and impairments there. Consider, for instance, the following fact. Follow the operation of—for example—ammoniac salt on the human organism. The adherent of current natural science will say that salts of ammonia, if administered in the form of salmiac, act primarily on what such current theory obliges him to call—the muscular motoric nervous system of the heart.

But this whole nervous system which is supposed to be motoric is an absurdity. As I have sufficiently emphasised, there is no difference between the sensory and the motor nerves. The whole conception of such a distinction is absurd. The matter in question is entirely different. So long as the ammoniac salts retain their efficacy—let us say within the area of the body between the processes of taste and of blood formation—there is also a continuous process of taste in the interior of the organism. This continued process of taste is at the same time a process in the astral body and releases a reflex action in that body, which is manifested in perspiration. If you can accept the whole of the earlier stages of our digestive activities as a continued process of taste, you will see right into the very core of the sebaceous process, and to some extent of the urinary excretion as well. For let me ask you to consider this: if we observe the main activity of this area, we find that essentially it has to do with an absorption of foodstuffs taken into the body secretion of the organism. That is the essence of what happens. All the processes in question reduce themselves—more or less—to this dissolving effect of the bodily fluids upon the foodstuffs. And this dissolving process has its counter-process, which consists in the special activities of the liver and the spleen. Thus in our earlier discussions the hepatic and splenetic activities had to be associated, in the main, with aqueous and fluid activities. But, in contrast to the dissolving effect in the first region of the digestive process, the liver's action operates as encapsulation, encirclement and re-transformation of what has been done in the first part of the digestive process. One may obtain a picture of what happens if one looks at the effect produced by throwing a handful of salt into warm water. The salt disperses and dissolves—this is an image of the action in the digestive tract, until the foodstuffs are absorbed into the blood-vessels and lymph channels. Now let me place beside the salt and water, some little globules of quicksilver, with their imperative urge to roundness, to completion, to organising and shaping. This is an image of the action which begins after the absorption of foodstuffs into the blood and lymph channels, and is controlled from the liver, with its close association with man's astral body.

We must look into the processes of life from this standpoint. For then we pass naturally to the study of the external world as revealed, for instance, in the structure of salt and of mercury formation respectively. We can read from the facts of the external world the gist of what must happen within the organism. But man must always be observed in connection with this external world.

Now follow further these ammoniacal salts; and note that if they pass into the formation of the blood, they have an alkalising effect. They have gone far enough on their appointed path to extend their operation into the upper human sphere from the lower, and to provoke reactions in that upper sphere. The significant fact here is, however, the complete reversal of processes that takes place. What happens may be stated as follows. The upper sphere in man is normally urged to act through sense perception in the lower digestive tracts, that is, to perceive through the sense of taste; but now the whole process is reversed—the lower sphere inclines more towards conscious perception, and the upper inclines towards that which works upon perception. The result is that whereas formerly there was a reflex action, which I have characterised as proceeding from the astral body, there is now a reflex action from below, that is to say, of an action which originates in the upper sphere. So that—to use a technical term—the ciliary epithelia, for instance, vibrate more rapidly and the pulmonary secretion increases. There is a reversed action. At first, the dissolving process stimulates the liver's activity, and then, through this encapsulating hepatic activity, the dissolving operation of the region above the liver—namely of the lungs—is called into action, with the secretion of the upper organs instead of the dissolution in the lower. That is the path in the human organism; from the intake of the substance, through dissolution or liquefaction, through saline processes to formative processes and concurrently, the processes of dispersal which are comparable to combustion and evaporation. Now let us think on the one hand of drops of quicksilver, and boiling liquid on the other, in constant evaporation, giving forth steam—which we might term phosphoric-sulphurous action, a process in which, as it were, inorganic matter is kindled. Then one has the activity developed in the opposite group of organs, that is to say in the lower sphere, but also in all that is associated with the lungs in the upper man.

If we have grasped the main currents of this internal activity, we have the key to what it can incorporate from the external world. If you will call to mind our very recent lectures, you will realise that all the stages of dental formation are a very peripheral activity of the human organism. They soon, therefore, become wholly external, tending to mineralisation, as has been pointed out. I hope this term will not be misunderstood; there has been, I think, some misinterpretation. I said that because the process of dental formation is so extremely peripheral, it is justifiable to use external technique, including the mechanics of dentistry because other forms of external help are impracticable, if the trend to mineralisation has gone too far, and the teeth are decaying. In such cases, it is only possible to apply mechanical treatment to what has mineralised externally. And mechanics here include all manner of dental repairs. Such external aid is necessary and justifiable if the teeth have become defective beyond the point at which they can no longer get what they need from within. But care must be taken of the supply from within of this process of fluorine formation which the whole organism also needs. When the teeth cannot carry out their fluorine activity, a substitute must be created for the process of fluorine in the organism. The replacement can be supplied in a certain way, but we must duly consider the reversal process—which has just been outlined.

What is the reality of this whole emergence of the teeth? It is nothing less than a movement of the mineralising process from within outwards. When the second teeth are all through the gums, this pushing outward of the mineralisation has reached completion. It is opposed by the process of sexualisation, which again drives from outside, inwards; and these two opposite processes act and counteract one another, as in a rhythm. In the same measure as the process of dentition becomes complete, the process of sexualisation proceeds apace at the opposite pole. And in recognising this you will also become aware of another process directed inwards and backwards, and also a polar opposite to dental formation and function, and actually closely associated with it; namely the peristaltic motion of the intestines. Here, then, are two intimately connected processes. Thus all that appertains to intestinal peristalsis is closely associated with what on the other hand builds up the teeth. This peristaltic movement is inwardly connected with the utilisation of fluorine in the human organism. It may be said that whenever the intestinal peristalsis proceeds more rapidly and with greater vigour than is consonant with any individual constitution, there is a reactive effect detrimental to the teeth and especially to all the normal function of fluorine in the human organism. So it will be necessary, in cases where the teeth are extremely defective, for the dentist to suggest a slackening of the whole intestinal function. This may be done externally by prescribing rest, should this be practicable for the patient, or by the administration of sedatives to the digestion, thus diminishing the vigour of the intestinal movements somewhat, though not to any great extent.

The regulation of these functions is of special significance; it is promoted by means of the limb exercises which I have already mentioned These exercises follow regular rules and apply to arms, hands, legs and feet. Especially beneficial is the control of movement through eurhythmy—because eurhythmy permeates movements with soul. If however the gymnastic exercises lie too much in the merely physiological realm, the pendulum swings too far on the other side and the results may easily be the reverse of what is desired. This is the reason why, for example, the excessive amount of ordinary dance movements that many young girls are expected to undergo may react harmfully on dental formation, and why one need not ask why girls who dance so much have, as a rule, more defective teeth than boys. The point is that dancing should not be exaggerated and should be permeated with soul. And what of the hands? The movements proper to knitting and crochet work can be and often are performed to excess, and in such cases we find results diametrically opposed to the benefits which a sound employment of this handicraft can bring to mankind.

Thus even in the sphere of mechanical ostensible movement there is a reversal of processes. In the first place the dental process is a reversal of the digestive. Moreover the human power of locomotion, of forward movement from place to place, in the external world, is a reversal of the movement interiorised in the process of digestion. It means very much for the constitutional health of mankind that man moves forwards, but that the digestive processes are mainly directed from front to rear. This is extremely important, and it is possible to do something for the alleviation of inert digestive processes, by accustoming the patient to practise walking backwards, as a form of gymnastics. There will be a stimulating effect on the function in question. Such empirical observations, based on collections of case notes, become coherent and unite into an understandable totality, if we turn the light of spiritual science upon the whole constitution of man.

Another point may be brought to your attention. There is no doubt whatever of the remarkable effect of Nux Vomica on man. On what does the action of nux vomica depend? Let us observe its action under special circumstances, and we shall have a glimpse into its inherent operations. Study the effect of an administration of nux vomica in what is known as a “hangover”; this will give you the key to its effect. There is a real reversal of all human organic activity under the after-effects of alcohol. For a “hangover” is the continuation of a process which is vividly at work in the upper digestive tract. It occurs if the natural internal activities following indulgence in wine, beer, or champagne, which are normal up to the incorporation of these substances in the formation of blood and lymph, pass the boundary line and affect these latter processes. If that occurs, the regions of the human organism which have as their proper office the liquefaction and dissolution are changed into a kind of sense organ, and instead of the man turning his main sense attention and activity to the world without, and communicating with that external world, and all the phenomena of earth, he is obliged through the damage done by drinking to perceive his own interior. For his own organism now contains processes strongly resembling those of the whole external world. Beyond the intestinal activities, into the very lymph and blood activity there has been inserted an internal replica of the earth's processes, an external world in miniature, an external world within the organism. The man thus makes himself inwardly into an external world, and most painfully and unpleasantly perceives inside himself that which does not disturb in the least if perceived in the external environment. For the human interior is not adapted to become an earth in miniature, but should withdraw from the earth's processes. The man however, in such conditions, makes a little earth in his own interior; something which would be far better placed, if it could be removed outside into full observation and surrounded with the apparatus of sense perception. He is now, however, compelled to perceive and receive sensation by means of an interior, so to speak “turned inside out.”

Nux vomica counteracts all these phenomena, by suppressing the sensitivity to this artificially external-internal state, until natural recuperation asserts itself, which is generally soon after excessive alcoholic indulgences. By suppressing this sensitivity, the interiorised external process is not disturbed; and nux vomica has a healthy effect, by modifying and reducing the continuation of the metamorphosed process of taste. When much modified, this metamorphosed process of taste no longer acts disturbingly on what lies beyond it. Thus some measure of cure is brought about.

Now, assume that the exact contrary occurs. Instead of an enhancement of the continued process of taste—namely of liquefaction—the process is weakened, so that the food substances are insufficiently dissolved. Assume the following: instead of the liquefaction of food-intake at the normal rate and amount, and instead of the food being taken up into the saline process, the interior of man proves too weak to carry this through. In this case the upper digestive tract works in the same way as though nux vomica were administered; it operates by itself, with the help of another process; and the insufficiently dissolved foodstuffs will try to adapt themselves to this change. They cannot pass over the boundary between the activity that causes taste, and the activity that builds up the blood, and they therefore seek an outlet in the opposite direction. Thus that condition arises which can be combated by quickening the dissolving process, whereas it is slowed down through the effect of nux vomica. And all that seeks the wrong outlet may be combated by administering Thuya. There you have the polar opposition between nux vomica and thuya, developed out of the functions of human nature itself. This is another proof of the need to regard constantly the totality of the human constitution, for these inherent polarities of the human organism are of inestimable significance.

All the activities whose trend is to force the processes of the lower organic sphere of mankind into the upper, are enhanced during sleep. It is necessary to take great care in describing sleep. Sleep is indeed one of the best of remedies, but only if employed to the right amount, neither too much nor too little, so that it suits the particular human individuality. Too much more sleep than the individual in question can sustain—is not curative, but toxic. During a too long spell of sleep, the internal barrier to which reference has been made lets through a continuous infiltration; too much passes through from the first digestive area into the region of blood and lymph formation. Man is exposed to this danger quite generally; the lower organic sphere is in a permanent state of sleep, so that man is always in danger of harmful effects on the blood through the processes of the lower organic sphere. But man also carries the antidote to this toxic process; an antidote proportioned to the normal conditions of our organism. The normal human organism tends to auto-intoxication through sleep; but this tendency is counterpoised and held in leash through the iron content of the blood. For iron is first and foremost the metal of most importance to the interior of man. Iron operates so as to restore the balance in case of an excessive impact of the first process on the other. Just as diseases can be understood through the deficiency in the blood, from the points just emphasised, you will have a curative effect on the organism if you administer iron in much diluted form, so that it is truly akin to the continuous homeopathising process of the upper human sphere; you will help the organism to master the disturbing processes which pass upwards from below. The other essential metallic processes of importance to man, are, as you have seen, replaced by our human functions themselves.

In this connection I want once more briefly, to recapitulate the conclusions to be drawn from the whole spirit of these lectures. Today we have again referred to the blood and lymph formative processes in man. This activity is polar to what arises in the mineralising process in the case of copper. There is thus an affinity between these processes and the metal copper. We must clearly realise that these processes belong to the lower organic sphere, although in its uppermost portion; and that the affinity with copper is such as to constitute a powerful attraction towards the copper-forming force itself, as we find it upon the earth. For all that appertains to the lower organic sphere in man, has kinship with the telluric processes. Therefore, if we aim at influencing that region by the administration of copper, we should make it a golden rule to administer copper here in low potencies, so that its action resembles that in the telluric sphere, and of course not in doses large enough to cause harm.

A similar kinship as between the inner process of blood and lymph formation and copper, is present between all processes leading the outer digestive process into the internal metabolism that forms blood and lymph, with the liver on the one hand and the metal mercury on the other. Just as the former process has affinity to copper, so the other process is akin to quicksilver or mercury. But we must remember the spherical, i.e., rounded, and balancing qualities of quicksilver; it is therefore linked up with the interactions between these two processes. But the processes which man must unfold in order that not too much digestive matter should pass into the blood, and which are activated by the effects of nux vomica and combated by the effects of thuya, are in their turn regulated by the forces of silver.

Thus we have the field clear before us, and are in a position to examine external nature according to these constituents, conceiving it, so to say, as a human being spread out and displayed, so that we are able to fit man into the environment, whether in health or disease; for the lower organic sphere is in particularly close connection with the environment. The processes which ascend from the lower to the upper sphere in man, through their kinship with the forces of copper, are regulated and balanced by copper's opponent: iron. Thus iron is an absolute necessity for man; there must always be a surplus of ferrous processes, to use a chemical term. All other metallic processes are present within us as processes: mankind is as it were a sevenfold metal. Iron alone is within us in its typical iron state; the other metals are only present as processes.

Just as all that collaborates with blood and lymph formation in our organs is akin to copper, so all that opens outwards from lungs to larynx, with its starting point in the lungs, is akin to iron. Furthermore, the regions associated with those portions of the brain which serve internal functions, which in fact are more similar to the digestive activity of the brain, and correspond alternately with the transitional processes from the intestines to the channels of lymph and blood:—these are allied with the processes that form tin. These tin-formative processes have the effect, so to speak, of ensouling and regulating the digestive functions in the particular tracts and stages mentioned. Finally all that is more connected with the nerve fibres, and the organs of the upper human sphere that may be regarded as continuations of the senses, have lead as their affinity; and this also corresponds to the liquid secretions or excretions, whether sebaceous or urinary.

Such are the affinities and correspondences illuminating the nature of man, and at the same time indicating how we can extract remedial effects from counter-processes in the substances of the external world. But we must keep one point quite clearly in our minds. Spiritual Science must point out particularly that so-called “mental diseases” in many respects have their main seat in the bodily organs, whilst, concurrently, “organic diseases” are closely interwoven with spiritual and soul factors. This is a chapter of peculiar difficulty. The materialism of today explores and handles so-called physical sickness on wholly chemical or mechanical lines, treating man more or less as an apparatus. At the same time, in its diagnosis of so-called mental sickness, it is reduced to a mere description of psychical symptoms, because this contemporary materialism has lost any comprehensive view of the connection between the soul and spiritual nature on the one hand, and the bodily and physical nature on the other.

This close association reveals itself particularly if we study concrete cases of the interplay between the soul state and the bodily health condition. Let us inquire into what promotes mental diseases. If an individual falls ill, subjective symptoms appear at first, pains, unusual sensations, etc. These manifestations which are most conspicuous in acute cases and change their nature if the condition becomes chronic, are the initial actions of the soul and spirit, in response to any organic injury; soul and spirit withdraw from the organ in question. The pain that is felt is the retirement or withdrawal of ego and astral body from the physical and etheric bodies. This process may coincide with a withdrawal of the etheric body from the physical; but the main and essential origin of pain is located in the ego and astral body. As a rule the ego is still strong enough to be aware of the whole subjective counter-process, the conscious counter-process of what happens in the bodily organs. If a illness becomes chronic, the process gradually falls away from the ego, so to speak, and as a result the soul's processes are restricted to the astral body, and the ego no longer shares in the sufferings of the astral together with the etheric body. And so organic disease may become chronic, the acute condition become permanent. Here we have to do with soul symptoms, which withdraw from consciousness. If we are to become symptomatologists we must go below the surface in man. Instead of asking the patients how they feel, and where they suffer pain, we should inquire whether they sleep well and are ready for work. That is to say, in chronic states of illness, we must look for symptoms in conditions which cover greater spaces of time and are related to man's general development; whereas in acute illnesses we may consider momentary subjective sensations as significant. In chronic cases, we should have more regard to the whole course of the life in question, than to the individual clinical symptoms.

Ordinary physical illness of chronic type arises if the whole morbid condition can be so retained in some organ that the astral and etheric bodies can both take their due share of the organic effects and contribute as much force to the parts in question as is necessary. The patient may be of an individual constitution able to endure an irregular function of the astral body, working through the etheric into the organ affected. If such is the case, and the patient is able to bear such abnormal operation of the astral body on the liver, for instance, and to carry it beyond a certain critical point, so that, as it were, the liver ceases to feel that the astral body operates abnormally: the organ recovers, but at the cost of habituation to abnormal and irregular action of the astral body. If such action goes on long enough, it begins to choose the other way into the soul sphere: what the liver should take up into the physical body is shifted into the soul region, and we have the symptoms of depression. Thus, if the man surmounts chronic illness beyond a certain point of abnormal relation with the astral body, a disposition has been established towards so-called mental disease.

To regard the subject in this light would bring us further than the mere pathological description. There is much talk today of the irregular course of concepts, of the irregular course of will action, and so forth. But so long as science does not know how the remarkable collaboration of liver, spleen and other abdominal organs actually support what finally emerges in its highest soul form as the human will, so long will it fail to discover the relevant physical correspondence for pathography. It should be possible to introduce the physical treatment in so-called mental cases. It seems indeed paradoxical that it should be left for spiritual science to advocate physical treatment for so-called mental diseases and to emphasise the importance of the soul as a factor in the cure of bodily ills. But this apparent paradox is due to the powerful antithesis between the upper and lower spheres in man. With this reversal is connected what happens if the sensory activity set in train from outside, becomes an internal sensory activity, as in the continued process of taste, mentioned above; or again, as in cases where what is within discharges itself externally through the vibration of the ciliary epithelia, or in the tendency to such epithelia vibration. In the interactions of the upper and lower bodily spheres lies a clue which can show the way to certain results, if it be read aright.

Now, my friends, I have tried to put many considerations on many subjects before you, in these twenty lectures. Before I began the course, I told myself, in viewing all the subject matter, that it would be a difficult thing to do for where could one begin? If one were to start with the elementary facts, it would be impossible to get very far in the allotted space and time; no farther, in fact, than would furnish a guide, or a rough guiding thread. If, on the other hand, one starts at the apex, so to speak, with purely occult facts, it becomes almost impossible to build any bridge to the medical science of today. This would require even more time for explanation and argument. And indeed, whereever the far-reaching ravages of materialism have been recognised today, one also sees the need to counteract these injuries from another approach. I beg of you to take what I say in the most friendly spirit, and not as propaganda or as ex parte statements. I do not wish to “take sides,” but simply to put before you the facts as they really are. One thing alone may and must be stated: in reviewing contemporary medicine of the allopathic school, we become aware of one inevitable consequence of that path, namely, the tendency to judge the sick person according to certain by-effects of the disease, as exemplified in the bacterial theory; the diversion to secondary issues. If bacteriology were treated as an aid on the way to knowledge, it would be of great service; much may be learnt from the specific types of micro-organisms, regarding the illness in question, for each specific kind of bacillus appears under the influence of quite definite primary causes. There is always opportunity for verifying this. But this pronounced tendency to take what is secondary for what is primary and basic as shown, for instance, in the investigation of the effects of bacteria on the separate human organs—instead of the study of the totality of the human organism, as a potential soil for bacteria, is an error which not only makes its appearance in the accepted bacteriology of allopathic medicine, but lies implicit in the whole attitude and point of view. In this way harm is done which it would be superfluous to enumerate in detail, as you will have had ample occasion to perceive it for yourselves.

On the other hand, however, I must ask you to forgive me if I point out that a scrutiny of homeopathic medicine does not always furnish satisfactory results. True, homeopathy attempts to handle the human being as a whole; it forms a comprehensive picture of all the symptoms, and attempts to build a bridge to therapy. But the professional literature of homeopathy brings to light something else calling for comment. At the first glance one is almost in despair, for especially in the therapeutic literature, we find the remedies enumerated one after another and each recommended for an entire legion of illnesses. It is never easy to discover specific indications from the literature, for everything is beneficial for so very much! I will admit that for the present, perhaps, this is unavoidable. But it is also a source of danger. And this danger can only be avoided if we proceed as we have sought to do here, even if on elementary lines, and by indications rather than in detail. Therefore I have selected elementary facts as the content of these lectures, and not—so to speak—the very summit of the finished structure. This can only be remedied if through such an inner study of human and extra-human nature one ascends to the narrowing of the compass of a medicinal remedy, to its delimitation. But this can only come about if we not only study the effects of a remedy on both the sick and the healthy, but gradually endeavour to view the whole universe as an integral unity, and man as involved in it. For example—as I tried to show yesterday—we should trace the whole antimonising process, in order to learn the effects of antimony in the external world, and to correlate these results with the effects of antimony within the human interior. Through this method, certain circumscribed areas—so to speak—are defined in the external world, which then have their interconnections with man.

Such were the reasons why I put the elementary considerations into the foreground of these twenty lectures. Nature—therapy, since it instinctively tries to revive in man the remedial forces contained in himself, makes it necessary to point out the true origin of these forces. Their true basis and origin is the interaction of the telluric with the extra-telluric sphere. And nature-therapy must above all avoid drifting into materialism; for we have come to such a pass today that every party programme, so to speak, has a materialistic tendency. This is a feature common to all of them. And thus there is an urgent need for a spiritualisation of this whole field. The world of today, however, very much opposes these things. It is in fact essential that the cure for materialism should appear in the very field of medicine represented by experts and specialists. For what has been attempted here and is perhaps even now in its first stage of development, must not be confused with any furtherance of dilettantism. I attach the greatest importance to the co-operation of those who are able to testify to our effort to work on proper scientific lines: to their co-operation and support in fighting the very harmful prejudice against us on the score of encouraging dilettantism in any direction. We have already availed ourselves of all the achievements of modern science and taken them into account. There is but little desire, however, to see our actual aims and intentions.

This is the note on which this series of lectures can fitly close. It may induce you to regard the series with all indulgence as a beginning, an introduction; and, in the outset of this introduction, as I said to myself, it was indeed hard, for the reasons already recapitulated, to know where best to begin. But now, my friends, that we have reached the end of this beginning, I confess that it is harder still to conclude. Yes, indeed, not to tell you all that there is yet to say—is more painful still.

With this course I hope to supplement last year's course, so that it will really complement it and result, at the end, in the crystallization of a variety of views on therapeutics. I will try to look from another vantage point at the human being who is ill and needs to be healed. By studying these matters from another angle we will not merely gain fresh viewpoints, but at the same time we will extend the subject matter of our studies. This time I would like to show how the constitution of the human being—physical body, etheric body, and so on, with which you as anthroposophists are all familiar—is active in the processes of becoming ill and healing. Last time I had to confine myself more to describing the outer manifestation of the inner human being. This time I will try to show how the different members of man are influenced by substances outside the human being. I will try to show what these substances really are that can be used as remedies, and to show how a remedy can be effective by influencing the human organism in a different way from the merely material.

At this point in my introduction, however, I must make the following presupposition. Last time we spoke here, we dealt with the same subject, considering from different aspects the use of substances—and in general what is physical—as remedies. But as soon as we have to go further and consider the higher members of human nature, the super-sensible members of the human being, we can no longer speak about substances in the same way. We often do so for the sake of brevity, but throughout this presentation we must bear in mind a fundamental fact: we must be quite clear that we cannot proceed from what is material in the way customary in current science if we really wish to understand man's relation to his environment and what happens to him in health and illness. We must begin from processes, not substances, from events in progress, not finished products. And when we speak about substance, we must picture that the substance appearing in the outer world to our senses is nothing more than a process come to rest.

Let us say we are looking at siliceous earth. We call it a substance. But we have not grasped what is essential if we merely form a mental picture of this so-called object with certain borders. We grasp what is essential only if we take into account the very comprehensive process that exists as an individual process taking place in the entire universe. This process then crystallizes out, as it were; it comes to rest, attains a kind of equilibrium, manifesting then as what we behold as siliceous earth (sandstone). It is essential to focus our attention on the interaction between processes within the human being and processes that unfold outside in the universe, for both in health and illness the human being stands in continuous interaction with the universe.

I would like to present to you in an introductory way something that can lead us to some thoughts about this interaction. We will then be able to begin tomorrow on our actual subject matter. First we must try to grasp man's essential nature by means of an anthroposophical spiritual science. I have often spoken of the threefold nature of the human being. Today I will at first express myself schematically, directing attention to the way this threefold nature is concentrated spatially within the human being. When we distinguish the nerve-sense system, we know that it is chiefly concentrated in the head but that it nevertheless extends throughout the human being. Only in his head is the human being first and foremost a nerve-sense being, but on the other hand the entire human being is also “head,” though less “head” in the remainder of his organism than in the head itself. Thus we can think of what we call the “nerve-sense man” as localized in the head.

If we are to make these thoughts of the threefold nature of the human being fruitful for our present purpose, we must then think of the “rhythmic man” (which encompasses the breathing and circulation) as twofold, one member tending more toward the respiratory system and the other more toward the circulatory system. Inserting itself into the circulatory system is then everything involved in connecting the “limb man” with that of the “metabolic man.”

In studying the human head, we are looking at the member of the human organism that corresponds primarily to the nerve-sense man. The organization of the head differs essentially from that of man's other members. This is also the case with regard to the higher members of the human being. If we study the human head from the viewpoint of spiritual science, we see this head as a kind of imprint—one might say a kind of extrusion—of the ego, astral body, and etheric body.

We must then still consider the physical body in its relation to the head. This physical body is present in the head in a different way, you could say, from the physical element that is an imprint of the ego, astral body, and etheric body. At this point let me emphasize the higher aspect of this by pointing out that the human head, as it manifests itself at first in the human embryo, is not shaped merely by the forces of the parental organism; cosmic forces are at work in the human head. Cosmic forces are working into the human being. In the forces we call etheric, the parental organism is active to a high degree, but even in the etheric, cosmic forces are acting out of the soul-spiritual life before birth, or rather before conception. What was living in the spiritual world before conception continues to work, especially in the astral body and the ego; it continues its work, forming the human head. The ego conveys its imprint onto the human head, and the astral and etheric bodies both convey their physical imprints. The physical body alone, which of course we receive only on earth, is not an imprint but a prime agent (ein Primär Wirksames).

Thus I can say—sketching this schematically—that the form of the human head is an imprint of the ego. The ego organizes itself within the head in a definite way. At first it organizes itself primarily by differentiating the warmth conditions within the head. The astral body's influence is more remote, its organizing principle is contained in the gaseous, airy processes that permeate the head (see drawing). Then the etheric body imprints itself, and finally we have what is the physical body for the head—a physical process, a real physical process (see drawing, hatching). I will indicate this by pointing to the bony portion of the back of the skull if the eyes are here (see drawing). But the physical forces concentrated here extend over the whole head. Here, in this physical part of the human head formation, is a real, primary physical process. It is not an expression of anything else, but is present as a process carried out in itself.

In this physical head process, however, we really have a duality, a cooperation of two processes. It is a cooperation of two processes that can be understood only if the spiritual investigator studies them in relation to certain other processes taking place outside in the universe. Look outside in the universe at the process in the ancient rocks that finds expression in slate-formation, especially out of siliceous earth. There you have a process diametrically opposed to the physical process at work in the formation of the head. We see here an important connection between the human being and his environment. This process that unfolds in the mineralizing process is also present within the human head. Today it is almost clear to geologists that every process of slate-formation, every mineralizing process in which silica takes part, is connected with what one may call the “de-vegetabilization of vegetable substance” (Entvegetabilisierung). In slate-formation we must see a plant world that has become mineral. And in trying to understand this kind of de-vegetabilization of the vegetable kingdom, which is especially significant in the earth's slate-formation, we learn to grasp the polar process at work in a different way in the human head.

Another process cooperates with this process, however, and this other process must also be sought outside in the world. We must look for it in limestone rocks, for example. Today it is almost a geological truth for outer science that chalk formations are essentially the result of a process of earth formation that we might call the “de-animalization process of animal substance” (Entanimalisierung). It is the opposite process to animal evolution. Again the polar opposite process to this is at work within us. If we ascribe to silica and calcium—which are processes come to rest—a role in the formation of the physical human head, we must realize that something that plays a very significant part outside in the cosmos, at least in the entire nature of our earth, thereby works upon this physical human head formation. At the same time we are able, by way of preparation in orienting, to understand that when we look at silica or silicon, we see its essential kinship to the process taking place in the physical head (when I speak of silica here, I mean the arrested process); when we look at the process of chalk-formation that has come to rest in limestone, we see that it has something to do with its polar opposite, with the other force that cooperates polarically in the human physical head.

In the human head, these processes that we can find around us today stand in connection with other processes not to be found on the earth but seen only in imprint, the head being an imprint of the etheric body, astral body, and ego. Regarding these members of human nature we have to do with arrested processes that are not directly earth processes. Only what I have described when speaking about the actual physical head is really an earth process in the human being. The other processes are not actual earth processes, although we will find their connection with the earth processes, as you will see.

We will now pass on to consider the second member of the human organism, in order to have a kind of overview. In trying to localize it in space, we may call it roughly the chest system. It is the member in the human organism essentially comprising the rhythmic man, and we will divide it schematically into a system of respiratory rhythm and a system of circulatory rhythm. Examining this second member of man's being as a whole, we must say that everything I have designated here (see drawing) as the organization of respiratory rhythm in the widest sense is mainly an imprint of the ego and astral body. Just as the head is an imprint of the ego, astral body, and etheric body, so the respiratory rhythm is an imprint of the ego and astral body. It has something primarily active in itself, (see drawing, hatching), with the cooperation of physical body and etheric body.

In the human head only the physical body is active in itself; as we have seen, there even the etheric body is an imprint. In the system of respiratory rhythm, the prime agent is constituted by the interpenetration and cooperation of the physical and etheric bodies, and only the ego and astral body provide the imprint. This applies essentially also to the system of the circulatory rhythm, but to a lesser degree, for the entire metabolic organism inserts itself into the circulatory system. Thus in the circulation, the characteristics of the metabolic-limb system already begin to be evident. The limbs then, with everything that projects into them as metabolism—with the exception of the actual circulation—are in essence an imprint of the ego and a cooperation of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies (see drawing).

Thus, if we study the chest man we find as its imprint-organization only what is related to the ego and astral body, and we find that its primary organization is not merely physical but is the physical permeated by the etheric. This is more strongly the case with the respiratory rhythm, whereas in the case of the circulatory organism, another element from the metabolic system inserts itself.

You see, then, that the different members of the human being interact in different ways. Corresponding to the various physical members that we can call “head system,” “chest system,” and “limb system,” there are different interactions of the members that spiritual science calls physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. The human head, regarded as a process, is essentially physical body, for what is not physical body there is an imprint of the ego, astral body, and etheric body. The middle realm of the human being is essentially a cooperation between physical body and etheric body, for what is not physical body and etheric body is an imprint of the ego and astral body. And the metabolic-limb man is entirely an interplay of physical, etheric, and astral bodies and an imprint only of the ego. The chest man and the metabolic-limb man overlap more, however. (See drawing on page 7.)

Now we must focus our attention on the part played in the middle system by the process working in the organization of the physical head, and which we had to regard as a process having come to rest in siliceous earth. The curious thing is that this process of siliceous earth formation works more strongly and extensively in the middle system. In the head it works more delicately. Here in the middle system it works more strongly, more extensively, and in a more differentiated way. And it works most strongly in the metabolic-limb man. In focusing our attention on the process we found connected with siliceous earth, we find that it works most strongly where it has to come to the help of the ego, where it has to support the action of the independent ego that has only its imprint in the physical metabolic system. This silica-producing process works most strongly where it has to support the action of the ego on the metabolic-limb man. It works less strongly where it merely has to help the astral body; and it works least strongly of all where it needs to help only the etheric body, i.e., in the head.

We might put this the other way around. Regarding this process which we consider as arrested in silica, we can say that in the human head organization it works most strongly as substance and least strongly as force. Here, where it works least strongly as force, it works most strongly as it approaches the point where it comes to rest in substance. If we regard silica as the substance lying before us, we have to say that its action is strongest in the head. If we regard it as the outward indication of a process, we have to say that its weakest action is in the head. Where the activity as substance is strongest, the dynamic activity is weakest. In the middle system, the two activities of silica as substance and as force are approximately balanced. Regarding the metabolic-limb system, the dynamic action gets the upper hand. We have here the weakest action as substance and the strongest as force. Thus the silica-producing process actually organizes the entire human being through and through. Now that we have inquired into the relationship between the physical organization of the head and the outer environment that has a reciprocal relationship with the human being, we may inquire into the reciprocal relationship of the middle system to the outer environment, insofar as the organization of respiratory rhythm is concerned.

If the spiritual investigator studying the human head really wishes to understand it, he must turn his gaze to two processes at work in the formation of the earth: not only that which forms silica or silicic acid but also the limestone-forming process. We will examine this more closely later.

The organization for the rhythmic respiratory system is less external, less peripheral, lying more toward the inside of the human body. And insofar as it consists of a cooperation, primarily a cooperation of the physical and etheric as they interweave themselves with the imprints of the ego and astral, it does not point us directly to something in the environment, to a process that exists already in nature and that we can encounter there. If we are looking for a characteristic process in the outer world to correspond with this whole interaction, we must first create it ourselves. If we burn plant substances and obtain plant ash, then the process manifested in the burning and production of ash, and in the settling of the ash, is related to the breathing process in a way akin to the relationship of the silica process to the processes that unfold physically in the head. And if we want to make effective use of the part of the process of ash-formation having its correlate in the rhythmical breathing process, we cannot, of course, introduce it directly into the breath—in the human organism we can never do that—but we must introduce it through the opposite pole, so to speak.

If I sketch it here, this would be the rhythmic breathing process, and this the rhythmic circulatory process (see drawing). In the rhythmic breathing process, plant ashes represent the processes that are effective for our purpose. But we must make the plant-ash process effective in the opposite pole, in the rhythmic circulatory organism, proceeding indirectly by way of the metabolism (see drawing). We must incorporate this plant ash, that is the forces into the circulatory rhythm in order that they may call forth their polar counter-activity in the rhythmic breathing process.

Perceiving these relationships, we come to realize how extremely important they are for an understanding of the human organism. Just as we saw that the process confronting us in silica-formation has something to do with the entire human being, so now—applying this to the process by which plant ash is formed—we gain a mental picture of the middle system of the human being. Once again, this is seen to consist of two members, possessing a rhythm of breathing and a rhythm of circulation. When we focus our attention on the upper part, the rhythm of breathing, we see that the structure of the organs concerned is essentially determined by a process that is the polar opposite of the process revealed to us when plant substance is burned and ash is obtained. To a certain extent a struggle is taking place in the rhythmic process of breathing—a continual struggle against the process of plant-ash formation. But this struggle does not take place without its opposite penetrating the organism and provoking this process in the organism.

As human beings we live on the earth where there are silica processes and limestone processes. We would not be human beings if these processes permeated us. We are human beings through bearing within us the polar opposites of these processes. We are able to oppose the silica-formation process because we bear the opposite pole within us; we are able to oppose the limestone-formation process because we bear its polar opposite within us. It is chiefly owing to our head formation that we bear these poles within us, but the entire organism is also concerned, as I have described it in our breathing process, for example. Through our breathing rhythm we carry on the struggle against the plant-ash process; in ourselves we bear its opposite pole. If we focus our attention on these things it will not appear strange that a blow calls forth a counterblow, to express myself somewhat crudely. It is quite clear that if I intensify the silica-forming process in the organism, the countereffect will be modified; likewise, if I introduce into the organism the product of a combustion process, the ountereffect will be produced.

The important question thus arises of how we are to gain control of this action and reaction. This is what I mean when I am always saying, characterizing it abstractly, that we must first know what the processes are within the human organism, even into the ego, and what the processes are taking place outside the human organism. These processes are differentiated, both within and outside, but they are related to each other as polar opposites. The moment that anything that should be outside my skin, according to its nature, comes to be inside it—or the moment anything acts from outside inward that should not do so (this may happen by means of only a gentle pressure) an inner counter-reaction arises. In that moment I have the task of producing such an inner counter- reaction. For example, if I find that, instead of the normal process opposing silica there is too intense a tendency to this process, I have to regulate this from outside by administering the appropriate substance and thereby inducing the counter-reaction. The counter-reaction will then occur by itself.

This is what enables us gradually to perceive and understand the interaction between the human being and his environment. To be able to gain insight into the different gradations of the ego's influence in the human being, you must realize that the ego, when it wishes to act through the limbs and metabolism, is chiefly assisted by what is contained in the silica-forming process regarded as force, and that in the silica-forming process in the human head the action as substance is strongest. Thus its action as force in the head must assist the ego with diminished intensity. Now if we focus on the relationship of the human ego to the metabolic-limb system, we find the origin of human egoism in this relationship. The sexual system is indeed a part of this system of human egoism. And the ego primarily penetrates the human being with egoism indirectly through the sexual system. If you understand this, you will be able to see that there is a kind of contrast between the way the ego uses silica to work on the human being from the limb system and the way the ego works from the human head by means of silica. One could say that in the head it works without egoism. When this is studied by spiritual scientific investigation, it is possible to see this differentiation.

If I were to represent this remarkable activity schematically, I would have to say the following: Considering the ego as a real element of man's organization, what it does from the limb system by means of silica (see drawing, red) is essentially to encompass the human being, blending everything present in the human being in the fluids into an undifferentiated unity, so that it forms an undifferentiated, uniform whole. Then, in what is really the same process but now regarded in its activity as a force, we find the least intensive silica-forming tendency, and this works in the opposite way (yellow); it differentiates and radiates outward. From below upward the human being is held together and undifferentiated by means of silica. From above downward he is differentiated into separate components. This means that in relation to the human being the forces working organically in the head become differentiated for their work on the individual organs. In a sense they are stimulated by the silica-process belonging exclusively to the head organism to work in the appropriate way in the various organs—heart, liver, and so on. There we encounter the process which, when acting from below upward, mixes everything together in the human being, whereas when it works from above downward its action works to mold separate organs, regulating the organization through the individual organs.

We need to gain a clear conception of the results of these two tendencies in the human being—the blending tendency on the one hand and the tendency to differentiate the various organs on the other (the synthesizing-organizing activity in contrast to the differentiating-organizing activity). If we gain a clear conception of the way these two can act irregularly in a particular person, we will gradually learn to treat a person on the basis of this when something is the matter with him. We will see how to do this in the lectures that follow.

But we must be extraordinarily cautious in our investigations along these lines. For example, what does contemporary natural science do when it investigates the human organism? It says, for example, that the human organism contains silica, fluorine, magnesium, calcium. It states that silica is in the hair, in the blood, in the urine. Let us consider two of these points, that silica is in the hair and in the urine. For materialistic science, it is simply a matter of investigating the hair and finding silica in it and investigating the urine and finding silica there. But the essential thing is not in the least that here or there this or that substance is found. That silica is found in hair is not at all essential; what is important is that it is there in order to be active from there. We have hair for a purpose; there are forces that proceed from our hair back to the organism, very delicate forces. The most delicate forces proceed from the hair back into the organism. But silica is present in urine because it is superfluous. It is not needed and is therefore excreted. It is of no importance whether silica is in the urine, for it is inactive. There we find the silica that should not be within the human organism and that does not have the least significance within the organism.

It is the same when we investigate any substance whatsoever, magnesium, for example. If there were no magnesium in our teeth, they could not be teeth, because in the magnesium process forces are active that play a most important part in building up the teeth. You have learned that from Professor Römer's lecture. Materialistic science, however, tells us that magnesium is also in milk. But the magnesium in milk has no significance. Milk owes its existence as milk to the fact that it is strong enough to eliminate the magnesium that is there. Magnesium as such has no place in milk. Of course, we can find it by analysis, but the milk-forming process can only take place by being able to expel the magnesium forces. We only learn something about this peculiar contrast between the processes at work in building up teeth and in producing milk when we know that magnesium is an essential constituent in the tooth-forming process, belonging to this process dynamically. In the process of milk-production it is like the fifth wheel of a cart and is eliminated.

It is similar with fluorine, for example. We cannot understand the entire process of the development of the teeth without knowing that fluorine is an essential constituent of tooth enamel. It is also present in the urine, but as an excretory process, having no significance there. Fluorine is present in urine because the organism is strong enough to eliminate it since it cannot make use of it.

Merely physical investigation as to whether something or other is somewhere or other determines nothing essential. One must always know whether a substance is justifiably present in a particular part as an active constituent, or whether it is merely there because it has been thrown out. This is the essential aspect, and it is essential for us to acquire concepts like these if we are to understand the human being—and other organic beings—in conditions of health or illness.

In order to speak more popularly, of course, it is necessary to do without the help of these concepts, because in our age there is so little general cultivation of finer, more differentiated concepts. One is therefore compelled to speak more in abstractions, which then are not comprehensible. In combatting materialism, one is very frequently not comprehensible. We need to descend into those domains that the scientist is supposed to understand, and where he has facts before him that he can investigate; then we are brought by spiritual science to be able to show that ideas deriving from analyzing a substance by means of physical-chemical science and saying: “This and this are in that and that,” can lead to nothing but errors.

This is what I wished to present to you today as an introduction. We will continue our studies tomorrow.