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Chapter 2:

Escharotics:
500 Years of Suppression


"The touchstone of true science is power of performance, for it is a truism that what can, also will, and thus attains to real existence."
Dr. Rudolf Virchow
(1821-1902)
"The universities do not teach all things ... so a doctor must seek out old wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be a traveller . . . Knowledge is experience."
Paracelsus 1
(1493-1541)
"Any treatment of disease that claims to be in advance of what is known to the profession however clearly on scientific principles or uniformly commended by its power to heal, is sure to meet with opposition. In the treatment of cancer that is the more to be expected inasmuch as cancer has been the opprobrium of the profession. By physicians, the world over, it has for the most part been regarded as incurable. If this is not so, why the conviction universally pervading the public mind that all ordinary means to arrest it are impotent?"
T.T. Blake, M.D. 2
Cancers Cured Without
the Use of the Knife (1858)
"A physician once told me that nothing arouses so much bitter enmity and heated arguments among his colleagues, as the subject of cancer. This may be due to the guilty recollections of cancer victims expiring who might have been saved; or of the memories of patients pronounced hopelessly ill who recovered under the treatment of a 'quack,' or who miraculously lived without further treatment. Possibly these guilt reactions and the remorse over exhausting the money of patients and their relatives in futile cancer treatments, account for some of these psychological manifestations which are expressed in hostility and attack."
Nat Morris 3
(written in 1958)
"I die by the help of too many physicians."
Alexander the Great 3b
On his deathbed, 323 B.C.
"Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home."
Stanley Diamond 4
In Search of the Primitive:
A Critique of Civilization

t is my position that for the entirety of recorded history in Western culture, but most particularly on account of Greek and Roman influences from about the fifth century, B.C., to the present, the suppression of simple, effective medical remedies in favor of more complex systems, methods, products, and protocols, has been embedded into the very fabric of the prevailing medical establishment. We'll examine the various political, economic, and religious constructs -- my version of "cultural infrastructure" -- necessary to sustain this system of suppression in an upcoming section. For now, it is only important to establish and define the "suppression pattern" and apply it to escharotics, as we discussed in the first chapter, so as to first finish my initial chronology.
An example of a famous medical pioneer who actually USED escharotics, is well documented in his success in treating cancer, was well-known to have been a victim of jealousy among his less competent colleagues (which included nearly everyone save himself), and was finally disposed of as a means of terminating their frightful embarrassment, should serve the present purpose.
He lived in the 16th century.

Paracelsus von Hohenheim Most physicians of antiquity acquired their reputation not because they were great theoreticians, but because they were able to cure patients who found little relief elsewhere. The proof was in the pudding. Good doctors cure their patients, and grateful acknowledgement through payment is the natural consequence. (Today it's the reverse. Getting paid is primary. The cure is an after-thought. This is poignant reality that hits anyone who has ever visited the ER section of a modern American hospital.)
A master of empirical eclecticism in the medical arts, Paracelsus gave credence to neither academic credentials nor social standing. He understood the dangers inherent in ideological rigidity and was the very antithesis of monoculturalism in medical approach, in all its diverse theoretical and applied facets that are as much an infection in medicine today as it was back in the days of Galen.
Paracelsus is reviled for his association with mysticism, astrology, and alchemy by contemporary historians -- indeed he found ways to harness them all in his practice -- and yet his critics must begrudgingly note his unusual successes. Centuries before Mesmer, Paracelsus understood and employed the principles of suggestion; centuries before Freud, he understood mind/body connection; centuries before Antonio Meucci 5 or R. Raymond Rife, 6,7 he utilized electromagnetic therapy; he discovered hydrogen, nitrogen; coined the term "alcohol" (from the Arabic) 8, and identified zinc. He composed his own pharmacoepia and achieved clinical success that few physicians today can match -- all at a time when medical specialization, as we know it, was non-existent.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), one of the most influential figures of the Enlightenment, said of him, "Those who imagine that the medicine of Paracelsus is a system of superstitions which we have fortunately outgrown, will, if they once learn to know its principles, be surprised to find that it is based on a superior kind of knowledge which we have not yet attained, but into which we may hope to grow." 9. His knowledge of subtle energies that act upon the living organism mimic principles that only now are beginning to migrate from our recent discoveries in quantum physics into the stodgy crevices of our biological sciences. Paracelsus is widely credited with not only being the "father of modern medicine" -- in part because of his expansive and radical departure from the apothecary practices of his time -- but the father of lesser known or respected practices and disciplines, including iatrochemistry and balneology. 10. Viewing the breadth of his work and the endurance of so many of his ideas (not to mention a universe of thought that did not endure -- perhaps because we have not the sufficient collective consciousness to comprehend them), it does not seem hyperbolic to say that he was "the precursor of chemical pharmacology and therapeutics, and the most original medical thinker of the 16th century." 11
In a facet of personality that appears common among those who rise too far above the mean intelligence of their medical peers, Paracelsus appeared to have little by way of humility. While lecturing at the University of Basel, he is reported to have said that the soft down on the back of his neck knew more about the practice of medicine than all the professors of Basel put together 12. A celebratory book burning of works by Galen and Avicenna, pillars of 16th century medical thought, which Paracelsus orchestrated in the spirit of religious leader and fellow German reformer, Martin Luther (1483-1546), was the last straw for many. It wasn't enough that he could cure illnesses that no one else could, he made a point to rub his colleagues collective face in it. On one occasion Paracelsus offered to cure any patient deemed incurable. Fully prepared to disgrace this wild braggart, his colleagues presented him with fifteen advanced cases of leprosy. (One can only imagine that since his enemies got to do the choosing, these were no mean challenges. No doubt with advanced cachexia and one foot already in the grave).
He cured nine out of the fifteen. 13.
The escharotic formula that Paracelsus used was as simple and direct as the rest of this practice. Instead of zinc chloride as a caustic halide, Paracelsus used "sal ammoniac" (ammonium chloride), along with fuligo (wood soot), and orpiment (arsenic sulfide). 14. According to records of the time, it worked. (Interestingly, Paracelsus employed his own "arsenic paste" nearly 400 years before Nobel Prize-winner, Paul Ehrlich, created his own celebrated version to treat syphilis in the early 1900's. 15. Variations in the 1800's had already been used by allopaths to treat skin cancer). 16
Paracelsus had a separate formula that was less "intense," which he used to treat skin cancers, jaundice, and some wounds. We don't know the exact method of preparation, but it used "litharge" (lead monoxide) as the caustic agent. 17
As one might expect, Paracelsus' reviling of tradition would eventually cost him his life, as he was unceremoniously pushed off a cliff by hired assassins "in the employ of the medical fraternity," according to supporters. 18 Though even a most orthodox review of Paracelsus' contribution to modern medicine cannot diminish his stature, the allopathic version of his end, as with most dissenters, has him in a most unflattering exit off stage -- namely, a bar room brawl 19 Or victim of a midlife stroke. 20 The reputation of more recent dissenters who produced miraculous results has faired no better -- even to the point of altering a death certificate. 21
Paracelsus was my illustrative choice here not only because he was a medical luminary nonpareil, but because the elements of suppression are most vivid in his life and work -- such as I have most scantily summated here.
Central to Paracelsus' work was the use of natural plants and mineral compounds, and what we might regard as the rudiments of modern chemistry. He didn't abandon Galenian concepts of herbal medicine, but his understanding was deeper, richer, and more holistic -- turning empirical, "evidence-based" medical herbalism into a kind of subset of a much larger universe of thought and practice.
There are hundreds of botanical extracts, the knowledge of which come to us from indigenous sources worldwide, which have shown to have anti-cancer properties. Dr. Jonathan Hartwell, one of the founders of the National Cancer Institute, spent most of his adult life categorizing them, leaving behind a reference that would become a classic in the field of phytopharmacology and ethnobotany. 22 (Later I would write an article, in tributary devotion to Hartwell's influence on my own work.) 23
But escharotics are not just botanicals. They employ, by definition, a lightly caustic compound, with one or more botanical ingredients. Caustics usually involve the use of a metal salt, often a halogen combined with a metal (halide), such as zinc chloride or potassium iodide. 24 (Though in the case of one famous physician, the contribution of the dissociated potassium was considered paramount.) 25
Another anhydrous chloride, "butter of antimony" (antimony trichloride) fits into this category. Many dermatologists are aware that along with zinc chloride, butter of antimony was one of the ingredients in a number of early escharotics of the 1900's. 26 But its use goes back even to Paracelsus in the 1500's -- though it appears he used it for other maladies. 27
I always stuck with zinc chloride in my escharotic work, and if you spend a couple hundred hours (as I have) going through patent records to uncover what caustic previous researchers have used, zinc chloride is, by far, the caustic of choice. Familiarity with its useful properties is not new. Anthropologists found traces of man-made zinc chloride in the Pyramid at Giza, produced at LEAST 2,500 years ago -- (though one researcher attributes its use to the generation of power and not medicine.) 28
Zinc chloride, though now reviled by allopaths in an attempt to smear alternative practitioners, was one of just three ingredients in the initial Mohs surgical paste that is now central to a standard dermatological procedure approved through the West. The three ingredients that Mohs used in his formula and taught were: zinc chloride, bloodroot, and stibnite (antimony sulfide, another Paracelsus favorite) 29 , and can be found in Mohs own original work. 30 . Ironically, the AMA, FDA and other pillars of orthodox medicine exerted enormous effort to put Harry S. Hoxsey out of business (and they succeeded) 31, and yet Hoxsey's formula was almost identical to Mohs. The difference? Mohs called the topical a "fixative," and he artificially and unnecessarily inserted the act of surgery as a necessary part of the process. 32
Hypocrisy and suppression have appeared together as cousins throughout the history of organized medicine, as we'll see time and again.
(By the way, American physicians are now taught that zinc chloride was eliminated from the Mohs paste as an ingredient because it is caustic to healthy skin tissue. There is no nice way to say this: it's a patent lie. I myself have worked with "butter of zinc" bases that were over 60% pure zinc chloride and had the thick, syrupy mess dripping from my fingers down to my elbow for the better part of an hour. Upon removal with running tap water there was only slight irritation to the skin on my forearm. I have done this not less than fifty times in a twelve year period -- 1991 to 2003.)
The suppression of effective, inexpensive, natural methods of healing has a history in the U.S. that is more extensive and egregious than any place on earth, in any time period on earth. I didn't realize just how true this was until I compared various escharotic patent filings in the U.S., with court filings on Hoxsey, Rife, and others, and then compared this with published work on the subject.
In late 1857 and 1858, three separate medical doctors surfaced in the U.S. and England with reports of a cancer cure that worked with amazing success. 33
The first was Dr. J. Weldon Fell.
A man of no plebeian upbringing, Fell was born to an old and distinguished American family with a long lineage of famous physicians and professional men, Fell was one of the original founders of the New York Academy of Medicine and a faculty member of the University of New York -- and as cancer writer Nat Morris noted, his was "one of the most interesting (stories) in the history of cancer." 34-36
According to Morris, "... a sinister cloud enveloped his career because of his cancer practice and in the prime of his life, he emigrated to London to start anew. There he engaged again in the practice of cancer under very auspicious circumstances for he was singularly prosperous and lived very lavishly."
His departure from New York was shrouded in mystery, but it fits a recurring pattern for physicians whose cancer practices rise too far in success above their peers. Prior to leaving, Fell attempted to resign from the New York Academy of Medicine, but his resignation was refused. It appears his association with a "cancer quack," a certain Gilbert of New York City, had caused colleagues great animosity. His resignation was postponed in the hope of "pinning a charge of quackery upon him so he could be ignominiously ejected from the academy."
Fell's subsequent success in London provides evidence as to the cause of his mistreatment in New York, as does the sizeable fortune, earned while servicing a grateful, sizeable base of patients in the U.S., which he took with him to England. He wrote a friend of renting a castle for $100 per week, a kingly sum at that time.
In the fine tradition of Paracelsus, Fell was also a man lacking in humility. A mere guest in his new host country, he derided English surgeons for "operating and amputating without any justification whatsoever and said that limbs were cut off merely to satisfy the vanity or sadism of surgeons. He charged that practices were tolerated in England that would never be permitted in the United States and of all the physicians he had met in London, there were only two whom he would trust to treat himself or his family." 37
Remarkably, excepting these sharp comments on the surgical practices of his contemporaries, Fell remained on good terms with his fellow English practitioners, and although little is known of the final years of his life, the record shows that he never again fell into disrepute -- alleged or otherwise, professional or public -- again.
Dr. Fell published a text on cancer, the content of which is the basis for his inclusion in the present work. 37b
To the best knowledge of this author (and I would be delighted to hear from anyone who would refute my assertion) Fell was the first one to publish an escharotic as it has come to be most popularly used in the West -- namely, the use of zinc chloride as the caustic of choice, along with a cancerolytic (cancer-fighting) medical herb. The use of zinc chloride as a superior, though mildly, caustic (it has a pH of 5.0), is reflective of the experimentation that took place over the preceding centuries. Caustics known to have been used, then and prior, in orthodox practice included "nitrate of silver, quicklime, sulphate of copper (sometimes used with borax), sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) mixed with saffron, and permanganate of pottasa. Alkaline caustics such as sulphate of zinc were also in vogue." 38 Dr. Fell dismissed them all, so he must have known of their shortcomings, as did his contemporary and fellow user of escharotic preparations, Dr. John Pattison (see below).
Fell's publication itself places him 20 years prior to the filing of U.S. Patent No. 209,311, and just four years after A. Hunton's 1855 treatise, "On some of the medical virtues of indigenous vegetables grown in the United States." We are also told by Hunton that the manner in which the medical secrets concerning bloodroot were obtained from an Indian doctor were less than honorable. 39 (None of which compares, of course, with the rapacious pilferage of indigenous Americans' land and most of their very lives.) 40
Even apart from Fell's open admission that the central role of bloodroot in his medical product came from native savages, 41 there is the issue of its use in American folk medicine long before that, specifically, its widespread use in Pennsylvania, documented as early as 1811. 42 Moreover, since bloodroot is native to the North American continent, its appearance in Russia infers that it may have been exported there. 43 Internal studies by the National Cancer Institute, which have themselves been suppressed, show even wider use in recent times. 44
But again, it is Fell that publicly announces the advancement of an escharotic by adding bloodroot to zinc chloride. Of greater importance is the final report which the board of directors of Middlesex Hospital allow him to publish concerning the results on 25 cancer patients, substantiating his claims that his treatment was far more successful than anything then available "and justified abandoning surgery for relief of cancer." 45
In their official communication, the board made the following cautious endorsements of the Fell cancer treatment:
  1. It was safe and conformed to surgical principles
  2. It could be employed on both operable and inoperable cancers.
  3. It obviated removals of the entire breast and could be confined to enucleation of tumors only.
  4. It spared patients the hazards of surgery, including hemorrhage and constitutional affections.
  5. Enucleation was followed by healthy granulation and cicatrizing surface (scarring over). 46
Despite its apparent growing acceptance by the orthodox medical community in London, a sea change that should have brought about the elimination of radically invasive cancer procedures, the remedy somehow fell into disuse. Only sporadic, historical references can be found to its use, which demonstrate that conscientious physicians would discover and bring the practice back, only to see it furloughed by medical authorities. One such instance is the use of a zinc chloride compound at St. Bartholomew Hospital in London -- to treat breast cancers, no less. (Our knowledge of it survives because two such cases can be found in the hospital's "Pathological Museum.") 47
For now it's important to know that Fell was not alone in his discovery -- even in his own time.
At about the same time that Fell was making headway at Middlesex Hospital, Dr. John Pattison, also an expat from New York City living in London, was also preaching the same message with what appears to be the same formula. Pattison, like Fell, abhorred the surgical treatment of cancer as a fraud upon the public. In 1858, Pattison, too, published his own work, a pamphlet, which provided not only the exact formula, but a precise description of its use. His ingredients? Zinc chloride, goldenseal (hydrastis canadenisa), flour and water. (This author, having experimented with variations of both formulas over many years, can attest that the end result of either Fell or Pattison's formula would be almost indistinguishable topically.) To further punctuate his point, Pattison expanded his pamphlet to a book in 1866, entitled "Cancer: Its nature and successful and comparatively painless treatment without the usual operation with the knife." 48
Neither Fell nor Pattison were obsessed with the elimination of more invasive methods of cancer treatment without sound reasoning. As early as 1844, a survey was compiled by Dr. Leroy-d Etoilles and published by the French Academy of Science. To this day this report on cancer survival is probably the most extensive ever released. It was based on results supplied by 174 physicians on 2,781 cases, followed "in some instances for over thirty years." 49 The short version: patients are better off, in most cases, doing nothing at all than going with surgery. Today, despite modern improvements in techniques and equipment, "the dominance of surgery in the treatment of cancer despite these ominous observations has been maintained by studiously ignoring and suppressing adverse information by the powers that be." 50 The continued practice of unnecessary surgery for financial gain is a contributing factor in "death by doctoring" as the third leading cause of death in the U.S. -- so says a study that miraculously managed to find its way into the pages of the Journal of the American Medical Association as recently as 2000 -- though it was largely ignored by the mass media. 51
Pattison was not singular in his approach. (No physician worth his salt is.) He indicated the role of diet, reflecting the etiological role of nutrition that was a century ahead of its time. Despite the later dating of his publication, Pattison's involvement with the very same Middlesex Hospital that brought fame to Dr. Fell is quite insightful. As it turns out, Pattison's work in London came BEFORE that of Fell. In 1852 Pattison offered to demonstrate his method to the directors of Middlesex Hospital and even to work without pay. An initial agreement was worked out where Pattison would work with twenty cases and would disclose his methods, permitting disclosure of his methods and criticism of results.
The directors reneged. 52
A subsequent request in 1854 was also sent begging. Pattison continued to work in London, where he built a successful practice that was wide and extensive. Nonetheless, Pattison was labelled a "cancer curer" and "quack" by his medical colleagues. His name was deliberately omitted year after year in the semiofficial directory of physicians, an act of mean-spiritedness that was only changed by an act of Parliament.
In comparing the life work of Fell and Pattison, one point becomes most instructive. Their formulas and protocols were, from a functional point of view, nearly identical. So why did the medical community accept one with open arms and slander the other as a quack? This is one of many anomalies in the cancer establishment that defies logical explanation. Why did U.S. Federal authorities come after me because my Cansema, whose active principles were in the zinc chloride and chapparal, both of which appear or have appeared in approved cancer related products (in Mohs' surgical paste and Actinex (NDGA))? Why was I made to plead to selling "an unapproved drug"? Is it because NDGA is okay if it's made in a laboratory, but not okay if it comes from chapparal, the very plant from which the discovery was made -- a plant with an extensive ethnobotanical history of use for medical purposes? 53-56
You find these and so many other "non sequitors" and "profit over logic" contradictions throughout the medical industry.
The third and last practitioner / specimen from 1858 is also instructive. T.T. Blake, M.D., published "Cancers Cured without the Use of the Knife." Unlike Fell and Pattison, Blake would not reveal what his formula was. Nonetheless, the description he gives of the process follows so closely those of all other escharotics, and taking into account the uncanny origin of Pattison and Fell in New York during the very same time period, I would agree with Nat Morris' interpretation that it was most probably an escharotic formulation that was close to theirs. 57



The Extraordinary Case of Perry Nichols, M.D.:
A 20th Century Story of a Cancer Clinic That
Cured Cancer Using Escharotics for 60 Years:
1896-1956

By the end of the 20th century, the successful use of escharotics for the better part of a half century had become so widespread that various clinics and institutions began to specialize in it. None that I know of is more noteworthy than the case of the Dr. Nichols Sanatorium of Savannah, Missouri. This institution cured more than 70,000 patients of cancer between 1896 and 1956 -- many of whom would have been regarded as untreatable by even today's best oncologists. 58
As I write this addition to Chapter 2 (Apr., 2017), I reflect on the various references to the Sanatorium that I have received over the past 25 years. (Nichols Sanatorium in Savannah, Missouri, would be the home of Nichols' operation for its last 44 years.) I would have included more references to Perry when I wrote the first draft of Meditopia in 2004, but I demurred for lack of material.
Early last year I contacted the Andrew County Museum and Historical Society in Savannah and was surprised to find a wealth of material concerning the Sanatorium, which closed in 1956 -- the year I was born.
The specifics of the Sanatorium beginnings are simple enough: Its founder, Perry Nichols, was born in Benton County, Iowa, on March 20, 1863, worked with a clinic specializing in escharotic medicine in 1895, started up his own clinic in 1896 (hiring a physician to work with the patients), graduated from medical school himself in 1901, and later established a 200-bed hospital in Savannah, Missouri. 59 He incorporated the Sanatorium in June, 1914, however, by this time he had already developed a widespread reputation of successfully curing cancer using his own techniques. "It was only after many years of research and diligent study that he discovered a safe and sane cure for the malignant disease of cancer without the use of the surgeon's knife and the miraculous cures that he has performed entitle him to the gratitude of thousands of patients and should give him eminent standing among the benefactors to mankind. His institution is modern in every way, with skilled medical practitioners and corps of trained nurses, and the location of the building is in a section where may be found every requirement of health. Although Doctor Nichols has built up this enormous business in but a few years and has comfortable accommodations for many patients, coming from every section of the country, at the present writing (1915) he is comtemplating further extension, which means still further humanitarian usefulness." 60
Above: The phenomenal success of the Nichols clinic is a cautionary tale about the frivolity of "acceptable" historical texts . . . or as the French philosopher, Voltaire, so succinctly put it: "The history of humanity is a Mississippi of lies." In this case, I would add "omissions." For the omission of the successful history of the Nichols Sanatorium from any other meaningful text on the history of cancer in the U.S. leaves a permanent black hole of deceit, intended to hide the ease with which cancer was so easily and inexpensively treated more than a century ago. The photo above is a photograph of the Nichols' staff, circa 1925.
Those who might suggest that the success of the Nichols Sanatorium would be based on some kind of personality cult originating with its founder should know that the involvement of the founder was short-lived. Dr. Perry Nichols, a tireless workaholic, died of a heart attack on August 29, 1925 at the age of 62. 61 Thereafter, his daughter, Mrs. Helen Nichols, took over the management of the Sanatorium, in accordance with his will. 62
The successful work of the Sanatorium was represented in its annual "yearbooks," that the institution produced, year after year. (The photo at right shows seven volumes that I have managed to collect over the years.) Additionally, the Sanatorium managed to put out an enormous amount of catalogs and postcards. The voluminous amount of printed materials that the Sanatorium produced was, in part, an effort to overcome the conventional medical propaganda about cancer treatment -- disinformation that has changed little over the past century. As the 1929 yearbook stated in its introduction, "Were it not for the fact that a great many people are constantly making declarations that cancer cannot be cured; were it not for the fact that the majority of physicians and surgeons are advocating, as you will see published in popular magazines, that 'the knife, radium, and X-ray' are the only remedies, the publication of this book, which contains the proof that such declarations are false, would not be a necessity. We submit this book, with the facts as quoted, and a list of thousands of references, for your consideration. These are cured patients, and now living . . ." At the end of 1929, at the beginning of the Great Depression, the Sanatorium experienced its greatest year ever -- mailing out 13,000 catalogues to the public. 63
Throughout the Depression, the Sanatorium continued to prosper. In 1942, at the start of America's involvement in World War II, the news of one mailing alone made it to the local paper: a mailout weighing 52,000 pounds. Four years later, in 1946, the Sanatorium produced a catalogue with over 350 pages and an "annual list of cured patients containing almost ten thousand names and addresses of recently cured patients." Given that the Sanatorium only reproduced the names and address of cured patients who formally gave their permission to have their personal contact information reproduced, one can only wonder what the Sanatorium's true impact was. 64


Above: Over the life of the Sanatorium, untold thousands of its postcards were sold to the public and distributed through U.S. Postal. I bought the one above last year (2016) from CardCow. It's addressed to: "Mrs. J. Winsler (of) Abilene, Kansas." There is no other address information because at that time, nothing else was necessary for letters sent to rural America. The postmark says May 13, 1920, and the writing on the back of the card is typical. "Have received a letter from my sister, Mella, telling me of your poor health. We have a neighbor who was cured of cancer at the institution advertised on this card, 6 or 7 years ago. He says they are fine. I certainly hope you do not have it (cancer) at all. We are all well. Boys are doing fine. They are working their way through college. Hope your boys and the family are well."

Interestingly, I am not the only one who has found the Nichols Sanatorium story fascinating. His story has been summarized on Whale.to and in 2004, Dermatology Times ran a story by a Andrew Bowser, M.D. about a dermatologist, Dr. Gary A. Dyer of Joseph, MO (just 13 miles from Savannah) who claims that he spent two years "piecing together a history of Nichols, interviewing nurses who worked in his institution, and scouring medical archives and local historical records. (I have) monitored eBay and Internet booksellers for surviving copies of yearbooks Nichols wrote touting his methods, patient testimonies, and cure rates . . . " 65
Dyer traced Nichols' knowledge of the technique upon which he would later build his empire, to a visit to an Iowa clinic in 1895, where -- at the age of 32 -- learned about treating cancers escharotically from two doctors who ran the "Cherokee Sanatorium." (By that time, many medical doctors, who at that time belonged to a fairly close-knot fraternity were privately familiar with escharotics -- many from the work of the men whose work is discussed above and others from the patent work that had already been filed in Washington.) After spending time working at the Cherokee Sanatorium, Nichols set to work on his own escharotic formula and then opened his own clinic in November, 1896. 66
As to the burning question -- what exactly was in Nichols' formula?" -- Dyers found a 1933 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association which revealed (probably through surreptitious acquisition) the results of its analysis: zinc chloride (ZnCl2) and butter of antimony (antimony trichloride or SbCl3). ). Dyers goes on to note: "Interestingly, in a skin pathology and treatment textbook published in 1895, Kaposi described a 'modified Landolfi's Paste' consisting of zinc chloride and butter of antimony." Then Dyers goes on to note (as I did in the previous chapter) that this is close to the initial paste used in Moh's surgery, consisting of zinc chloride and bloodroot. 67
But the small formulary difference --- and when you understand the effects of these different combinations, you realize they are quite close --- was not the only thing separating Nichols and Moh. Moh "championed biopsy," a big industry money-maker, even though biopsies are inherently metastatic, thus guaranteeing future business. Nichols, on the other hand, understood, as did Hippocrates 2,300 years before him, that cutting into cancer aggravated and stimulated malignant growth.
Dyers ends his article by saying that if Nichols had gone a more conventional route -- (using an on-staff pathologist) -- he could have "made the discovery" that Moh's made later and been much more successful.
This is nonsense. It's nonsense because what Moh did was co-opt an existing medical modality and attempt to make it more profitable for the profession. Dyers admits that from July, 1931 to June, 1948, the Nichols Sanatorium -- which treated several thousand patients per year -- was only averaging about 70 surgeries annually. If you treat 7,000 patients and subject 70 of them to surgery, that's 1%. That's a little bit less than the Moh's procedure, which calls for surgery 100% of the time. Which approach is likely to be more profitable?
One thing I wasn't able to determine from any of the materials I read was the exact reason the Nichols Sanatorium closed in 1956. The Sisters of St. Francis, who moved in shortly thereafter to set up a nursing home at the hospital, were hardly the reason for the closure. What we do know is that by 1956, the public practice of escharotic medicine in the United States was clearly under attack. Given the public airing of Harry Hoxsey's travails, it is difficult to imagine anybody in the administration of Nichols' Sanatorium not knowing that the American Medical Association, Food & Drug Administration, and other minions of the Medical Industrial Complex were -- even then -- committed on putting Nichols' Sanatorium, and small organizations like it, out of business . . . taking them to court, fining them to death, hopefully imprisoning those in charge, etc.
It is thus most logical to surmise that a decision was made to close Nichols Sanatorium, concluding 60-year of uninterrupted and successful medical practice, in the most graceful and non-combative way possible.
And -- as it turns out -- that's exactly what they did.

[ See Nichols Sanatorium Pictorial in the right column for more.]



I feel quite certain that these historical cases represent mere shadows in the long list of practitioners who have used escharotic preparations. They were hugely successful and their clinical reports were most positive. So, why did escharotics fall into disuse?
Is it possible that the answers can be found in the "Ten Conditions" discussed in Chapter One? Is there a logical explanation that would refute them? Even in the medical records of antiquity we find evidence of the ubiquitous practice of suppression towards those therapeutic practices that would pose the greatest threat to organized medicine.
Long before the escharotic publications and pronouncements of 1858 -- indeed, long before the miraculous cures of Parcelsus himself, the truth was evident to all who would investigate without vested interest. Paracelsus himself, in attempting to promote his accomplishments chose a namesake that would not refute the soundness of his escharotic protocols. "Paracelsus" is Latin for "above Celsus" -- so who would Celsus have been that Paracelsus chose him as a point of lofty comparison? Why not "Paragalen"?
Shortly after the invention of printing press around 1450 by Johann Gutenberg, one of the first medical works to be published was "De medicina," by Aulus Cornelius Celsus, the first century Roman physician and medical writer. 68 Its initial publishing in 1478, just fifteen years before Paracelsus' own birth, would lead to wide acceptance in the orthodox medical community. Divided into three parts, according to the type of treatment that various diseases demanded -- dietetic, pharmaceutical, and surgical -- Celsus' work laid the foundation for many of the components of the modern medical paradigm in ways even more fundamental than those of Paracelsus. Even Celsus believed that "caustics should be tried before knife or cautery." 69 Before him, "caustics" were used by early Arab and Roman physicians. 70 Viewed from a historical perspective this long, is it really possible that a truly effective way of curing cancer could so easily be suppressed?
In time, you'll be able to answer this question for yourself, but since I myself sold my own escharotic preparations to untold thousands of practitioners and end users worldwide from 1990 to 2003, perhaps I should finish telling you my own story.



  1. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th Edition, 1986, Vol. 9 (Micropaedia), "Paracelsus," p. 134.
  2. T.T. Blake published Cancers Cured Without the Use of the Knife in 1858. The passage cited from the book is taken from: Nat Morris, The Cancer Blackout, Regent House, Los Angeles, Calif. (USA), 1977 (Fifth edition), p. 28.
  3. Nat Morris, The Cancer Blackout, Regent House, Los Angeles, Calif. (USA), 1977 (Fifth edition), p. 156. ---- 3b --- Alexander the Great quote taken from: George Crile, Jr., M.D., Cancer and Common Sense, Viking Press, New York, 1955. Chapter VI, "The Hidden Cost of Cure," p. 51.
  4. Stanley Diamond, In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization, as quoted by Jensen, p. 189.
  5. Gerry Vassilatos, Lost Science, Adventures Unlimited Press, Kempton, Illinois (USA), 1999, "Chapter 2: Hearing Through Wires: Antonio Meucci," p. 56-75.
  6. Ibid., "Ultra Microscopes and Cure Rays: R. Raymond Rife," p. 137-168.
  7. Barry Lynes, The Cancer Cure That Worked!, Marcus Books, Ontario, Canada, 1987.
  8. http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Paracelsus
  9. http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/L/LessingG.html, on background on Lessing, and Note 7, p.6 for his quotation.
  10. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Paracelsus: Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, Calif. (USA), p. 21, 30.
  11. Manly P. Hall, Paracelsus: His Mystical & Medical Philosophy, Philosophical Research Society, 1997, p. 5; extracted from: Fielding H. Garrison, A.B., M.D., An Introduction to the History of Medicine - with medical chronology, suggestions for study and bibliographic data, W.B. Saunders Company, 1929. p. 204.
  12. Ibid.
  13. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Paracelsus: Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, Calif. (USA), p. 19.
  14. I found no evidence that Paracelsus used a zinc chloride base in his escharotics. It appears that ammonium chloride was his halide caustic of choice in his own formulary work. One prominent formula consisted of just three ingredients: Orpiment (arsenic sulfide) -- good description: http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/sulfides/orpiment/orpiment.htm Paracelsus' use of it in one cancer preparation: Arthur Edward Waite, Alchemical Medicine - Paracelsus, The Alchemical Press, Edmonds, Wash. (USA), p. 18. He combined the orpiment with fuligo (wood soot), see http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclectic/kings/carbo-lign.html and with sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) acting as the caustic halide in this formula. One aside: Chloride and iodine appear to be reoccurring halogens in this area, as I have never seen any compounds of bromide, flouride, let alone astatine, used in topical escharotic preparations.
  15. Paul Ehrlich (not to be confused with our celebrated ecologist and author from Stanford) won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in immunity: http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/
    pharm/chemo/readings/ehrlich.htm
    He is widely known for his REdiscovery an arsenic paste, his versions called Salvorsan and Neosalvorsan was used in treating syphilis in the early 20th century, and still in use in the veterinary community. Ironically, he also coined the term "chemotherapy," a concept that was synonymous with quackery at a time when x-ray and radiation treatment were the prominent moneymakers in conventional cancer treatment. See: Kenny Ausubel, When Healing Becomes a Crime, Healing Arts Press, Rochester, Vermont; 2000. p. 233; quoting: Ralph W. Moss, Questioning Chemotherapy, p. 15-16; A. Gilman "The initial clinical trial of nitrogen mustard," American Journal of Surgery, Vol. 105, 1963, pp. 574-78.
  16. As early as 1895, orthodox physicians were using arsenic paste to treat skin cancer: http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Bodywork/rich16.htm
  17. Paracelsus used litharge (lead monoxide) in a topical paste for cancer, which also contained salt water, alum (probably aluminum sulfate), and white vinegar. Litharge is a strong enough irritant, though not ideal by any means can be sufficiently transdermal to incure other toxicological implications. See: Arthur Edward Waite, Alchemical Medicine - Paracelsus, p. 7. Also see: http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/l3478.htm MSDS Sheet for litharge (lead monoxide).
  18. Manly P. Hall (1997), p. 7.
  19. Fielding H. Garrison, A.B., M.D., (1929), p. 205.
  20. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, p. 19.
  21. A point made in the movie, When Healing Becomes a Crime, by Ken Ausubel. See http://www.altcancer.net/vidgal.htm#hoxsey
  22. Jonathan L. Hartwell, Plants Used Against Cancer, Quarterman Publications, Inc., Lawrence, Mass., 1982. This book is no longer in print, and when I attempted in 1998 to get ahold of the publisher at their address at 5 South Union Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts (USA), the current occupant said they had never even heard of the publisher. Strange.
  23. http://www.altcancer.net/hartwell.com
  24. If you're a little weak in remembering your high school chemistry, go to http://www.chemicalelements.com and follow along. The halogens are the second to the last column on the right, next to the noble gases. They include (starting from lowest molecular weight to highest) flourine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine.
  25. Nat Morris, The Cancer Blackout, Regent House, Los Angeles, Calif. (USA), 1977 (Fifth edition), p. 43. Dr. F.W. Forbes Ross (M.D.) treated cancer as a mineral deficiency. He employed both potassium iodine and potassium citrate (the latter NOT a halide) along with phosphorus supplementation in London at the turn of the nineteenth century. Says Nat Morris:
    "In the treatment of cancer, Doctor Ross prescribed potassium citrate and phosphate to correct the mineral deficiency, with a weekly dose of five grains of potassium iodide. His cancer patients were either the hopeless and inoperable or those who had refused surgery or irradiation. In a number of cases adjudged as hopeless, he was remarkably successful. He pre- scribed potassium routinely in all his other patients and claimed that over a period of fifteen years no patient under his care had contracted cancer."
  26. "Secret predates Mohs method: Perry Nichols and the escharotic cancer cure." See: http://www.dermatologytimes.com/dermatologytimes/
    article/articleDetail.jsp?id=95680&pageID=1
    Although this is an allopathic web site and the article's author cannot faithfully report the facts without lacing it with disparaging spin, the essential points still come through.
  27. http://www.zompist.com/versci.htm
  28. The Complete Pyramid Sourcebook, John DeSalvo, Ph.D., Great Pyramid of Giza Research Association, 2003.
  29. Ingrid Naiman, Cancer Salves and Suppositories (1994), p. 41.
  30. Mohs, Frederic E., B.Sc., M.D., Chemosurgery: Microscopically Controlled Surgery for Skin Cancer. Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Illinois, 1978.
  31. Kenny Ausubel, When Healing Becomes a Crime (2000); p. 153-161. Hoxsey's Salve contained zinc chloride, antimony trisulfide, and bloodroot. Note 29, p. 151.
  32. J.T. Phelan, H. Milgrom, H. Stoll, H. Traenkle. 1962. The use of Mohs' chemosurgery technique in the management of superficial cancer Surg. Gynec. Obstet. See: Harwell, p. 439, who notes "of 70 patients, 42 completely healed (of which 2 recurred)."
  33. An important side note: all three doctors originally practiced in New York City, though both Fell and Pattison ended up moving to London. This should appear to the astute observer as more than coincidence.
  34. Nat Morris (1977), p. 30. Most of the material on Blake, Fell, and Pattison is this section is taken from Morris' work. The following four footnotes are also Morris' and I provide them only on account of the increasing unavailability of his fine work. The Cancer Blackout was produced in five editions, the last of them having been printed in 1977.
  35. Montague, M.F.A. and Musick, W.J.: A Yankee doctor in England in 1859, Bull of the Hist. of Med., 13, 217-288, Feb., 1943
  36. Farrow, Ruth T.: Odyssey of an American cancer specialist, Ibid., 23, 236-252, May, 1949.
  37. Nat Morris, p. 31.
    37b. J. W. Fell: A Treatise on Cancer, London: John Churchill, 1857.
  38. Morris, p. 37.
  39. A. Hunton, "One some of the medical virtues of indigenous vegetables grown in the United States. N.J. Med. Rep. found in Hartwell, p. 433, wherein he notes, "(the ointment was) used successfully for over 30 years and obtained surreptitiously from an Indian doctor." (p. 432).
  40. Derrick Jensen, The Culture of Make Believe, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont (USA), 2004. There are too many passages demanding thoughtful reflection in this book, just on our treatment of the native American Indians, to do it justice here. (And this is only one of the themes of this, Jensen's last tomb). Among the more noteworthy: p. 122 (destruction of heritage); p. 162, 170 (General Sherman's treatment of them); p. 172, 177, 308 (open Indian slaughter); p. 175 (Montezuma slaughter); p. 193 (General Smith's "Burn and kill the natives!" campaign -- "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the better you will please me" ... including children down to the age of ten); p. 246 (the holocaust of the Cherokee indians); p. 311 (wipeout of Lakota and Cheyenne people), etc., etc. I had to read this 608 page book twice while in prison. I was too busy silently weeping to catch it all on the first go-around. I underlined the parts that really struck a nerve on the second pass -- which ended up being about 30% of the book. Most people don't read footnotes -- and that's too bad -- I would have included this material in the main text (more amplified, of course) if it were more germane to the topic at hand. Actually, in a way, it is. You understand in studying Jensen's work why a sustained medical holocaust would not only be possible in our culture -- it is inevitable, a mere reflection of its very sick, inner nature.
  41. Fell, p. 95, noted in Hartwell, p. 435. Fell himself was aware that bloodroot ointment was made and used by Indians of the Lake Superior region to treat cancer, even uterine.
  42. Treatment of cancer by bloodroot. 1859. Boston Med. and Surg. J. noted by Hartwell, p. 437, wherein he notes the use of powdered bloodroot to treatment cancers in Pennsylvania as early as 1811.
  43. J. Wolff, Die Lehre von der Krebskrankheit. G. Fischer Jena, Part IIIb., 1914, p. 618. Noted in Hartwell, p. 437, who comments: "Folk remedy of the Indians of the Lake Superior region." (Breast cancer). "Folk remedy in Russia (1896-1897)" for non-specific cancers.
  44. National Cancer Institute, central files. Same citation for members of the Larrea genus by Hartwell, p. 437, footnote #691. His comments: "Cancer -- Louisiana; Pennsylvania; California; Tennessee; (Cherokee Indians); Oklahoma. All 1956-7." Apparently, Hartwell uses the same citation to communicate that the NCI was well aware of its value as a salve and its common use in Texas, with "1955-8" probably representing the dates during which an internal investigation of its usage at NCI was made.
  45. Morris, p. 32.
  46. Ibid., p. 33.
  47. George Crile, Jr., M.D., Cancer And Common Sense, Viking Press, New York, 1955. p. 31.
  48. Pattison, John: Cancer: Its nature and successful and comparatively painless treatment without the usual operation with the knife, London: H. Turner & Co., 1866.
  49. Morris, p. 35.
  50. Ibid., p. 35.
  51. [ Find and cite Dr. Barbara's article in the June, 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. ]
  52. Morris, p. 38.
  53. Jonathan L. Hartwell, Plants Used Against Cancer, Quarterman Publications, Inc., Lawrence, Mass., 1982. Section XI: Lloydia 34(4), p. 682. It remains a mystery, even to this author, why despite the depth of Hartwell's work, he only cites one reference to any member of the Larrea genus (Zygophyllaceae Larrea tridentata). Its use among the indians of the U.S. Southwest is extensive, and yet he quotes a "Coville" source, noting "identified from sample of leaves and twigs by Dr. B.G. Schubert, U.S.D.A." Here is the reference Hartwell provides: "National Cancer Institute, central files." For someone like myself who has worked with indigenous sources for chapparal and knows how ubiquitous its use was and is in the Southwest, this, in and of itself, at least carries the appearance of a cover-up, and this, coming from one of Hartwell's biggest fans. Chapparal was too widely used for Hartwell to not have been more familiar with its indigenous use in the treatment of cancer.
  54. Alma R. Hutchens, Indian Herbology of North America, Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, Mass, 1973. p. 82-84. The Indian nations of Papoga, Pimas, and Maricopas, among others, were users of the Larrea genus to treat a variety of ailments including arthritis, cancer, chronic backache, acne and other skin ailments, including skin cancer; kidney infection, leukemia, bronchial and pulmonary conditions, etc.
  55. Anthony J. Chichoke, D.C., Ph.D., Secrets of Native American Herbal Remedies, A Comprehensive Guide to the Native American Tradition of Using Herbs and the Mind/Body/Spirit Connection for Improving Health and Well-Being, Avery (Penguin Putnam, Inc.), New York, 2001. p. 35.
  56. Judith Sumner, The Natural History of Medicinal Plants, Timber Press, Inc., Portland, Oregon; 2000, p. 172, 213. Notes the historic use of Larrea to treat skin infections, but falls for the fallacious orthodox admonition about "acute" hepatotoxicity. Shame.
  57. Morris, p. 27-29.
  58. I have collected just seven of the Sanatorium's "annual yearbooks" over the year's, the majority of each volume consisting of the name, home state, cancer type, and personal address of each cured patient -- something you would never see today. In just the few volumes I own, there are thousands of cases, some of those who have been described to me my relatives are nothing short of miraculous.
  59. Williams, p. 1463-1464.
  60. Ibid.
  61. Additionally, Dr. Nichols died following an operation. Though he succeeding in the budding world of alternative practice, the conventional procedure contributed to his undoing. See Perry Nichols Death Certificate, also see his locally published obituary.
  62. See Savannah Reporter, Apr. 29, 1976. Also Nichols Perry appears to have drafted an informal will on the Sanatorium's letterhead, clearly indicating his intentions : pg. one, two, and three. Although the document does not appear to have been signed, it reflects that actual turn of events that followed his passing.
  63. See : Savannah Reporter, Jan. 18, 1929. Comment about the success of the 1929 business year to be found at Savannah Reporter, Nov. 29, 1929. .
  64. See: Savannah Reporter, July 5, 1942, followed by pages two and three. .
  65. I've converted the article, also taken from Whale.to, into an easy-to-read Word file. Dyer did a more detailed article two years later (Clinics in Dermatology (2006) 24, 458-460. .
  66. Ibid.
  67. Ibid.
  68. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th Edition, 1986, Vol. 3 (Micropaedia), "Celsus, Aulus Cornelius," p. 16.
  69. Ibid.
  70. Ibid.
  71. Ingrid Naiman, Cancer Salves and Suppositories, Seventh Ray Press, Cundiyo, New Mexico (USA); 1994, p. 72.
  72. Ibid., p. 94.
  73. Ibid., p. 100.
  74. See http://www.cancersalves.com/introduction/zncl.html.
Recent Addition (2017):
The Extraordinary Case
OF Perry Nichols, M.D.

(70,000 Cancer Cures
Over 60 Years Using
Escharotics)



Cansema - Deep Tissue
The Truth?
It Cures Cancer.
99% of The Time
Topically. Period.

Granted, skin cancers are the easiest to treat and cure. But the scandal behind escharotics is that this skin cancer cure has existed for literally hundreds of years -- something you learn by the time you complete Chapter 2 to the left. The zinc chloride-based "modern escharotics" have been in regular use since the 1850's, though always the target of suppression by the orthodox medical community.
The reason for this suppression is obvious: skin cancers represent a large percentage of the dermatologist's business. In some areas, basal and squamous cell carcinomas and melanomas and their pre-cancerous keratotic cousins represent better than 50% of their work. The AMA and pharmaceutical companies work very hard to maximize their market share. Anything that works this well, this inexpensively, and has self-diagnostic properties so that you don't need the assistance of a physician, makes it anathema.

Blackout
... it's hard to determine which is more nauseating: the horrid stories of suppression and abuse in the cancer industry that Morris' revealed in 1959 ... or that nothing has changed in the over 45 years since. For more information on Suppression in the Cancer Industry and a list of suggested reading, see the page, Cancerolytic Herbs: A History of Suppression -- on the Alpha Omega Labs site.

Treatise on Cancer
J. Weldon Fell, published his "Treatise on Cancer and Its Treatment" in 1857. An American with an extraordinary success at curing cancer in his practice in New York, he became an "ex-pat" in London to escape droves of jealous colleagues in the States. Although the book is just 95 pages, the last 30 pages are devoted to some of Dr. Fell's more astonishing cures. Instead of including melanomas or other easier cases (which is child's play to cure for those who know how to work with escharotics), he includes those instances which were considered among the toughest type cancers to cure in his day. The predominant number of cases he reports in the book are, therefore, breast cancer cases. Other cases he reports include one uterine and a couple of epithelial cancer cases of the nose -- similar to those which comprise the "Sue Gilliatt" type frivolous lawsuits of the 21st century.

Cancer Salves
Naiman also provides her own "history of escharotics," some of which is incorporated into the text at left. However, the practicum material is so inaccurate it makes me wince at times. She states in one place that " ... starting from the beginning, it should be underscored that the experts, from Hildegard to the present, have all more or less concurred that the salves are not a cure. At best, they are an alternative to surgery. There is nothing about them that would prevent recurrence." [71]. Well, that just isn't true.
An experienced user of escharotics knows that to be mind-numbingly preposterous. Or perhaps Ms. Naiman wasn't working with some of the better formulas. Cansema, for one, is a cure. And non-reoccurence is the rule. Frankly, in the thirteen years that I made and sold Cansema, I would say that AT LEAST 50% of all users saw absolutely no recurrence in their skin cancers, or other growths removed near the skin. At least. I myself have used Cansema on about five growths over the years. Only one of them returned such that I had to do another application, and that was about eight years later. Now, I realize that some of this may be attributable to the Cansema formula itself, refined as it was through constant reappraisal of end user and health care practitioner inputs over a thirteen year period.
In another place Naiman says, "even the most fervent advocates of the salve do not recommend the salves as a substitute for proper diagnoses." [72. What she doesn't tell you is that this recommendation is made to mollify the all-powerful medical lobby. No experienced escharotic practitioner believes that their product is not self-diagnosing (i.e. it reacts only to cancerous or precancerous tissue). If an escharotic formula does NOT react to only cancerous or precancerous tissue than it is an inferior formula. So someone would make Naiman's statement only if they were inexperienced in the actual use of escharotics from a clinical point of view, or they dealt in inferior formulations, or they were cowtowing to the medical lobby to cover their hide. I can now speak honestly about this matter because I no longer make or sell my formulas. Prior to my incarceration, I had to lie just like everybody else.
And do heal overs really take as long as "seven months"? Naiman says this is "not unusual." 73. Such an occurrence was very rare with Cansema.
On her web site, Naiman made the statement: "I do not think zinc chloride has much capacity to discriminate healthy from malignant tissues. Depending on scar tissue and pigmentation and some other variables, it might be more readily absorbed by certain tumors, but the healthy tissue is definitely not impervious to this product.
"Zinc chloride is made by pouring hydrochloric acid over zinc. It is extremely caustic and will not merely damage skin but result in possibly extreme pain and scarring. However, it can be washed off with water when accidental contact is made outside the intended treatment area. Just keep in mind that it is caustic and needs to be used sanely and carefully."

Quite recently, she deleted the information on this one page and archived it, but then the very same information appears on her "zinc chloride and bloodroot" page (74). To counter this inaccurate information I added an FAQ question to the Alpha Omega Labs' site, plus a picture of my own hand scooping up a handful of zinc chloride, which I have worked in for up to an hour at a time with only mild skin irritation. (See picture below).

This is a sensitive issue for those of us who have worked with escharotics, because it is a standard piece of disinformation that the medical establishment espouses to scare people away from escharotics. After all -- why would anybody want to use a product that destroyed healthy as well as cancerous tissue? ... (though, quite ironically, conventional chemotherapy destroys both healthy and cancerous cells).
Its a malicious lie with no basis in scientific fact. Zinc chloride has a pH of about 5.0 and is only mildly caustic.

Harry Hoxsey
Kenny Ausubel is to Dr. Harry Hoxsey what Barry Lynes is to Dr. R.R. Rife. Both biographers brought their subjects to the attention of the world.
Ausubel went the extra step and had a movie made, which can still be viewed on the Alpha Omega Labs web site.
The relevance of Hoxsey's work to this chapter is the degree to which money and politics suppress even the most effective medical treatment that does not curry favor with the orthodox medical establishment, which demands that cancer treatment, in particular, meets the standards of their "high profit paradigm." Most effective cancer treatments are very inexpensive, and that makes them worthy of suppression. You get extreme doses of this reality when you study Hoxsey -- the success of his clinics and the tens of thousands who came to his support when the FDA came after him. The story of Hoxsey is the story of the brutality of profits over humanity, decency, and scientific principle.
The Hoxsey story has become a fitting metaphor for what's wrong with the "disease care" system we have today that has turned the health needs of ordinary citizens into a cruel system of financial servitude.
Rx Business
We cover some of this same territory with Wohl's 1984 work, The Medical Industrial Complex. Written in 1958, one gets a sense that the problem goes back to antiquity -- that organized medicine is inherently dangerous to one's health and callous to the needs of the ordinary person. He opens with a quote from Hippocrates (circa 400 B.C.) that is as true today as it was nearly 2,500 years when written: "Although the art of healing is the most noble of all the arts, yet, because of the ignorance both of its professors and of their rash critics, it has at this time fallen into the least repute of them all. The chief cause for this seems to me to be that it is the only science for which states have laid down no penalty for malpractice. Ill-repute is the only punishment."
In light of a 500 year suppression of escharotic preparations, one gets the sense that the "politics and greed" have been there all along. It's gotten worse, to be sure, but the seed was there long ago.

Treating
The Insane
Insanely
Your initial impulse might be one searching for relevancy. What does our treatment of the insane have to do with the suppression of medical technology to feed a hungry profit-driven vortex of corporate greed?
Everything.
The way we treat those in our midst who are LEAST predisposed to speak for, represent, or defend themselves speaks volumes about how everyone else gets treated. Sanity is, after all, an entirely relative thing.
Whitaker's title truncates the essence of things, "Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill" (2001). The work itself is paced in four parts, dividing the American approach to the mentally ill into "The Original Bedlam" (1750-1990); "The Darkest Era" (1900-1950); "Back to Bedlam" (1950-1990s); and "Mad Medicine Today" (1990s - Present).
The truth is not only shocking, but reflective of the fertile soil in which one would expect the suppression of inexpensive, highly effective medical technologies to flourish. Amazingly, schizophrenics in the U.S. fare worse than patients in the world's poorest countries, "and quite possibly worse than asylum patients did in the early 19th century ... as a society (we are) deeply deluded about their efficacy."
Whitaker traces a history of treatment specifically designed to "silence patients and dull their minds." (Parallels?) Early on, patients were routinely "spun" until they grew "so weak and dizzy they couldn't move." They had their teeth, ovaries, and intestines removed, and in one shocking therapeutic contribution that speaks volumes about the inhumanity in orthodox medicine, patients were submerged in water so cold that hypothermia resulted.
When eugenics became the rage in the 1920's and 30's, other even more horrific therapies were introduced. The "lobotomy" was introduced that "worked" by damaging the brain, followed in the 1950's by electroshock and wave after wave of news that did little more than impair the patient. Neuroleptics numbed the nervous system and restricted motor movement. As studies emerged showing that these drugs didn't work, they were pushed aside under the influence of the powerful drug companies who made them. A litany of examples in the book show how the drug companies skew their studies and "employ charlatan scientists" to run them. The fact is, the new, more expensive "atypical" drugs are no more effective than the old; only, a new set of side effects have been found. Even more disturbing, patients have been encouraged to participate in experiments that "exacerbate their delusions." The money motive of the drug companies has a strong flavor that saturates the last two "parts" of the book.

And that brings us to my reason for including it as the final literary example for this section on medical suppression.
In another era, another age ... another place in time, the physician took a Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm..." and ... he meant it. In another era, another age, curing the patient was primary; making money was secondary. Are we, too, not patients? Are we, too, not being "dumbed down," anesthetized to the primary motives that drive our so-called "health care system"? Are we not treated in the same way that the insane are treated, the renderings just not as obvious? Are not all the same elements of cruelty, brutality, and callous disregard still left intact? One cannot study the history of the suppression of simple, effective, medical approaches, and then read this book without seeing the obvious correlations.
We may respond to a different poison, but we drink from the same cup.


A Pictorial of
The Nichols Sanatorium



Note: The photos below are thumbnails. Click on each to see enlargements.

In 1905 Nichols was asked to head an 80-bed sanitorium in Hot Springs, South Dakota. It would be his last major move before settling down in Savannah, MO.

A review of the extent documentation left behind by Dr. Perry Nichols reveals an obsession with the retaining of personnel who were both technically competent and morally upright. On this basis alone, Nichols' cleaving the more objectionable elements of industrial medicine becomes apparent. The photo above shows Dr. Nichols, along with leading members of his administration.
Throughout the life of the Sanatorium in Savannah, the organization was prolific in its production of printed materials for the general public: yearbooks, magazines, postcards, etc. The common theme in this entire effort was the attempt to let the world know that the cure for cancer was simple, safe, and minimally invasive in the vast majority of cases. And the evidence they provided to make their point was nothing less than breathtaking.
Sanatorium foyer.
Sanatorium dining room for patients.
To accommodate the 200-bed Sanatorium with its very low vacancy rate, the kitchen had to be a small industrial kitchen.
Office at the Sanatorium.
Five Photos Above: Images of the patient room accommodations.
A leisurely moment outside the Sanatorium with members of the staff.
The Sanatorium made a number of modifications / expansions over the years. Above, nurses on the staff participate in a light-hearted mock photo op.
A group shot with Sanatorium patients.
Nurses on staff.
The Nichols Sanatorium was an enormous boon to the local economy, filling hotels with visiting patient visitors, relatives, well-wishers, and others who would not otherwise stay at the Sanatorium itself.
View of the side entrance to the Sanatorium. The guard shack is in the foreground, "Building #2" behind it and to the right, and the edge of the main building of the Sanatorium is shown on the far left.
View of Building #2.
View of Building #2 during construction, built to accommodate the Sanatorium's expansion.
Dr. Nichols must have known, when he wrote an informal "Will" for his staff, that the Sanatorium would long outlive him. In fact, he wrote this "Will" in 1924, a year before his death. The excerpt above was reprinted in a subsequent issue of the Sanatorium's magazine and it sums up the mission statement of the institution: "You have all known me long and well. It is my will and desire that the management of the Sanatorium and my business generally be continued as nearly as possible on the lines and methods now being used in the management of said hospital and business. The changes in business methods that time may bring, as well as any and all other changes in the present program, should be viewed with the closest scrutiny, it having long been proven that changes in our present plans and system have been damaging; that our present methods have long been standing, long been tested out and while some changes will, from time to time, become necessary, these should be made under the greatest precaution. I would not endeavor to convert this business into a purely money-making institution; I would endeavor to make others happy to the extent of the greatest numbers possible for me to do, never striking down unless morally sure immensely greater good can be derived therefrom. I am trusting to the executives and members of this corporation to take into account the substance of this letter. ~~~ Perry Nichols