Fundamentals of Anthroposophical Medicine
GA 314
27 October 1922 p.m., Stuttgart
Lecture III
As we begin to view the human organism increasingly in the way that I unfortunately have been able to indicate only very briefly, many things become terribly important concerning judgment of the human being in health and disease, things not otherwise appreciated in their full significance. Very little attention is paid nowadays to what I have called in my book, Riddles of the Soul, the threefold nature of the physical being of man. Yet a proper assessment of this threefold nature of the physical human being is of the greatest significance for pathology and therapy.
In accordance with this threefold nature of the physical human being, the nerve-sense system is to be pictured as localized mainly in the head, though of course this head organization really extends over the entire human being. The nervous and sensory functions of the skin, and also those within the human organization, must be included. However, we cannot arrive at a well-founded conception of the modes of activity in the human organism unless we differentiate, theoretically to begin with, the nerve-sense system from the rest of the organization as a whole.
The second system in the human being, the rhythmic system, includes in the functional sense everything that is subject to rhythm—primarily, therefore, the breathing system and its connection with the system of blood circulation. In the wider sense, too, there are rhythms that are of essential significance to the human being, although these can be disrupted in many ways; I am referring to the rhythms of day and night, of sleeping and waking, as well as everything else rhythmical, the rhythmic assimilation of food and so on. These latter rhythms are constantly disrupted by the human being, but the consequences of such disturbances have to be brought into equilibrium by certain regulative factors found in the organism. As a second member of the human organization, then, we have the rhythmic human being, and, as a third member, the metabolic organism, in which I include the limb organism, because the functional processes that arise as a result of the movements of the limbs are inwardly connected with the metabolism in general.
When we consider this threefold nature of the human being, we find that the organization described in the last lecture as being mainly connected with the ego has a definite relationship to the metabolic human being in so far as the metabolic human being extends over the whole being of man. The rhythmic human being has a definite relationship to what I designated this morning as the system of heart and lungs. The functions of the kidneys, the forces that proceed from what I called the kidney system, are related to the astral organization of the human being. In short, in his threefold physical nature the human being is related to the individual members of his super-sensible being and thereby also to the individual organ systems, as I showed this morning. These relationships, however, must be studied in more precise detail if they are to prove of practical value for understanding the human being in health and disease. Here we will do best to begin with a consideration of the rhythmic human being, the rhythmic organization of man.
This rhythmic organization of the human being is very frequently misunderstood in relation to one of its definite characteristics, namely the ratio that is established between the rhythm of the blood circulation and the rhythm of the breath. In the adult human being, this ratio is approximately four to one. This, of course, is only the average, approximate ratio, and its variations in individuals are an expression of the measure of health and disease in the human organism. What is revealed in this rhythmic human being as a ratio of four to one continues in the entire human being. We again have a ratio of four to one in the relationship of the development of the metabolic human being (including the limbs—for simplicity's sake I say “metabolic”) to the nerve-sense human being. This can be verified by empirical data, as is the case with other things mentioned in these lectures. Indeed, so far-reaching is this ratio that we may say that all the processes connected with human metabolism take their course four times faster than the work done by the nerve-sense organization for the growth of the human being.
The second teeth that appear in the child are an expression of what is taking place in the human metabolic system as a result of its coming continually into contact with the nerve-sense system. Everything that flows from the metabolic system toward the middle, rhythmic system, set against that which flows from the nerve-sense system into the rhythmic system, takes place in a tempo of four to one. To speak precisely, we may take the breathing system to be the rhythmic continuation of the nerve-sense system and the circulatory system to be the rhythmic continuation of the metabolic system. We can say that the metabolic system sends its effects, as it were, up into the rhythmic human being. In other words, the third member of the human organization works into the second, and this expresses itself in daily life through the rhythm of the blood circulation. The nerve-sense system sends its effects into the breathing system and this is expressed through the rhythm of the breath. Thus in observing the ratio of four to one in the rhythmic human being—for there are some seventy pulse beats to every eighteen breaths—we see the encounter between the nerve-sense system and the metabolic system. This can be observed in any given life period of the human being by studying the ratio of everything that proceeds from the human processes of metabolism in their impact on everything that proceeds from the head system, the nerve-sense system. This is a ratio of exceptional significance.
We may therefore say that in the child's second teeth there is an upward thrust of the metabolic system into the head, but in such a way that in this meeting of the metabolic system with the nerve-sense system the latter gets the upper hand to begin with. The considerations that follow will make this clear to you. The second dentition at about the age of seven represents a contact between the metabolic system and the nerve-sense system, but the effect of the nerve-sense system predominates. The outcome of this collision between what proceeds from the nerve sense system and the metabolic system is the development of the second teeth.
Again, in the period when the human being reaches puberty, a new collision occurs between the metabolic system and the nerve-sense system, but this time the metabolic system predominates. This is expressed in the male sex, for example, by the change in the voice itself, which up to this period of life has essentially been a form of expression for the nerve-sense system. The metabolic system pulses upward and makes the voice deeper.
We can understand these effects by observing the extent to which they encompass the radiations in the human organism that originate in the kidney system and liver-gall system on the one hand, and in the head and skin organizations on the other (everything that therefore forms the nerve-sense system). This is an extremely interesting ratio, one that leads us into the deepest depths of the human organization. We can picture the building and molding of the organism in this way: radiations proceed from the side of the kidney-liver systems, and they are met by the plastic, formative forces proceeding from the head system. If we were to try to draw what takes place schematically, we would have to do it in this way (sketching). The radiations from the kidney-liver system (naturally they do not stream only upward but to all sides) have the tendency to work in a semi-radial direction, but they are thwarted everywhere by the plastic, formative forces that proceed from the head system. We can thus understand the form of the lungs by thinking of them as shaped sculpturally by the liver-kidney systems which are met by the rounding-off forces proceeding from the head system. The entire structure comes into being in this way: radial formation from the kidney-liver systems, and then the rounding off of the radial formation by the forces proceeding from the head system.
In this way we arrive at a fact of the greatest importance and one that can be confirmed empirically in every detail. In the process of man's development, in human growth, two force components are at work: (1) the force components that proceed from the liver-kidney systems and (2) the force components that proceed from the nerve-sense system, rounding off the forms and shaping their surfaces. These two components collide with each other, but not with the same rhythm. They collide with each other in varying rhythms. Everything that proceeds from the liver-kidney systems has the rhythm of the metabolic human being. Everything that proceeds from the head system has the rhythm of the nerve-sense human being. This means that when the human organization is ready for the emergence of the second teeth, at about the seventh year of life, the metabolic organization, with all that proceeds from the kidney-liver systems (which is met by the rhythm of the heart), is subject to a rhythm that is related to the other rhythm, proceeding from the head, in the ratio of four to one. Thus not until the twenty-eighth year of life is man's head organization developed to the point reached by the metabolic organization at the age of seven. This means that the plastic principle in the human being develops more slowly than the radiating principle, the non-plastic principle. In effect it develops four times as slowly. This is connected with the fact that at the end of the seventh year of life, regarding what proceeds from our metabolism, we have developed to the point reached by growth in general (in so far as this is subject to the nerve-sense system) only at the twenty-eighth year.
Man is a thus a very complicated being. Two streams of movement subject to totally different rhythms are at work in him. And so we can say that the emergence of the second teeth, for example, is due in the first place to the fact that everything connected with the metabolism comes into contact with the slower but more intensive plastic principle, so that in the teeth the plastic element predominates. At the time of puberty, there is a predominance of the metabolic element; the plastic element withdraws more into the background, which is expressed in the male sex by the familiar phenomenon of the deepened voice.
Many other things in the human organization are connected with this: for instance the fact that the greatest possibility of illness fundamentally occurs during the period of life before the arrival of the second teeth—the first seven years of life. When the second teeth appear, the inner tendency of the human being to disease ceases to a great extent. The system of education that it has been our task to build up* has compelled me to make a detailed study of this matter, for it is impossible to found a rational system of education without these principles concerning the human being in health and disease. In his inner being, the human being is in the healthiest state during the second period of life, from the change of teeth to puberty. After puberty, a period begins when it is again easy for him to fall prey to illness.
- Referring to the Waldorf education movement, founded in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919, and now a worldwide independent educational movement.
The tendency to illness in the first period of life until the change of teeth is quite different from the tendency to illness after puberty. These two possibilities of falling ill are as different, you could say, as the second dentition is from the change in the male voice. During the first period of life, up to the change of teeth, everything proceeds from, the child's nerve-sense organization to the outermost periphery of the human organism. Everything proceeds from the nerve-sense organization. The nerve-sense organization, which predominates until the change of teeth, is the origin for pathological phenomena in the first period of human life. You will be able to form a general conception of these pathological phenomena if you say to yourselves: it is quite evident here that the radiations from the kidney-liver systems are rounded off, sculpturally rounded off by the plastic principle working from the nerve-sense human being. This plastic element is the main field of action of everything that I have described as being connected with the ego organization and the astral organization of the human being.
Now it may seem strange that I previously spoke of the ego organization as proceeding from the liver-gall system and the astral organization as proceeding from the kidney system, and that I now say: everything connected with the ego and astral organizations emanates from the head organization. We shall never understand the human organization with all its tremendous complexities if we say baldly that the ego organization proceeds from the liver-gall system and the astral organization from the liver-kidney systems. We must realize that in the first period of life, up to the change of teeth, these radiations from the liver system and the kidney system are rounded off by the nerve-sense system. This rounding-off process is the essential thing. Strange to say, the forces supplied to the ego and astral organizations by the liver-gall system and the kidney system reveal themselves as a counterradiation, not in their direct course from below upward but from above downward. Thus we have to conceive of the child's organization as follows: the astral nature radiates from the kidney system and the ego organization from the liver system, but these radiations have no direct significance. Both the liver system and the kidney system are, as it were, reflected back from the head system, and only this reflection into the organism is the active principle.
How, then, are we to think of the astral organization in the child? We must think of the workings of the kidneys as being radiated back from the head system. What of the the ego-organization in the child? The workings of the liver-gall system are also radiated back from the head system. The physical system proper and the etheric system work from below upward, the physical organization having its point of departure in the digestive system and the etheric organization in the heart-lung system. These organizations work from below upward and the others from above downward during the first epoch of human life, and the radiation from below upward works into the radiation working from above downward in a rhythm whose ratio is four to one.
It is a pity that the indications here have to be so brief, but they really are the key to the processes of childhood. If you want to study the most typical childhood diseases, you may divide them into two classes. On the one side you will find that the forces streaming from below upward meet the forces streaming from above downward with a rhythm of four to one, but there is no coordination. If it is the upward streaming forces with their rhythm of four that refuse to incorporate themselves into the human individuality, while the inherited rhythm of the head organization is in order, then we find all those diseases in the child's organism that are diseases of the metabolism, arising from a kind of damming-up against the nerve-sense system in which the metabolism is not quite able to adapt itself to what radiates out from the nerve-sense system. Then we get, for example, that strange disease in children that leads to the formation of a kind of purulent blood. All other children's diseases that may be described as diseases of the metabolism arise in this way.
On the other hand, suppose the metabolic organism is able to adapt itself to the individuality of the child and that the hygienic conditions are such that the child is properly adapted to its environment—if, for example, we feed him in a regular way. If however, as a result of some inherited tendency, the nerve-sense system working from above downward does not harmonize properly with the radiations from the liver-gall system and the kidney system, diseases accompanied by cramp-like conditions arise, the cause of them being that the ego and astral organizations are not descending properly into the physical and etheric organizations.
Childhood diseases, therefore, arise from two opposite sides. Nevertheless, it is always true that we can understand these diseases of the child's organism only by directing our attention to the head and nerve-sense organization. The metabolism in the child must be shaped so that it is brought into harmony not only with outer conditions but also with the nerve-sense organization. In the first period of human life, up to the change of teeth, a practical and fundamental knowledge of the human nerve-sense system is necessary and we must be aware that despite the fact that everything in the child radiates from the head organization, it is nonetheless possible for the metabolism to press too far if the metabolism is normal while the head organization, through hereditary circumstances, is too weak.
Now when the second period of life sets in, from the change of teeth to puberty, it is the rhythmic organism from which everything radiates. The astral and etheric organizations of the human being are essentially active here. Into the astral and etheric organizations between the change of teeth and puberty streams everything that arises from the functions of the breathing and circulatory systems. The reason that the human organization itself can offer the human being the greatest possibility of health during this period of life is that these two systems can be regulated from outside. The health of school children of this age is very dependent on hygienic and sanitary conditions, whereas during the first period of life external conditions cannot affect health in the same way.
Out of a real knowledge of the human being we become aware of the tremendous responsibility resting upon us with regard to the medical aspect of education. We become aware that we may have dealt wrongly with the causes of disease that make their appearance between the seventh and fourteenth years of life. During the elementary school years, the human being is not really dependent upon himself; he is adapting himself to his environment in his breathing, by inhaling the air and by means of all that arises in his circulation through metabolism. Metabolism is connected with the limb organization. If children are given the wrong kind of gymnastics or are allowed to move wrongly, outer causes of disease are cultivated. Education during the elementary school age should be based upon these principles, which should be taken into strictest account in all our teaching.
This is not done in our time, as you can conclude from the following. Experimental psychology—as it is called—has a certain significance which I well appreciate, but among other transgressions it makes the mistake of speaking like this: such and such a lesson causes certain symptoms of fatigue in the child; such and such a lesson gives rise to different symptoms of fatigue, and so forth. And according to the conditions of fatigue thus ascertained, conclusions are drawn as to the right kind of curriculum. Yes—but, you see, the question is put incorrectly, it must be posed in a different way. From the seventh to the fourteenth years, thank God, all that really concerns us is the rhythmic human being, which does not get tired. If it were to tire, the heart, for instance, could not continue to beat during sleep throughout the whole of earthly life. Nor does the action of breathing get tired. So when it is said that we must pay attention to whether more or less fatigue arises in an experiment, the conclusion should be that if there is fatigue at all, something is amiss. Between the seventh and fourteenth years our ideal must be to work not primarily upon the head system but upon the rhythmic system. We do this when we form our education artistically. Then we are working upon the rhythmic system, and we will see that it will be quite possible to correct all the conditions of fatigue arising from false methods of teaching that are being researched today. Excessive strain on the memory, for example, will always exert an influence on the breathing action, even if only in a mild way, and the results will appear only in later life.
At puberty and afterward, the opposite is the case. Causes of disease may then arise again in the human being himself, particularly in his metabolic-limb organism. This is because the food substances assert their own inherent laws, and then we are faced with an overpowering effect of the physical and etheric organisms in relation to the human organization.
In the organism of the very young child, therefore, we are essentially concerned with the ego organization and the astral organization working by way of the nerve-sense system; in the period between the change of teeth and puberty we are concerned mainly with the activity of the astral and etheric organizations, but now arising from the rhythmic system; after puberty we have to do with the predominance of the physical and etheric organizations arising from the metabolic-limb system. We can see how pathology confirms this absolutely. I need only call your attention to certain typical diseases of the female sex; actual metabolic diseases arise from within the human being after puberty, so that we can say that the metabolism predominates. The products of metabolism get the better of the nerve-sense organization instead of duly harmonizing with its activities. In childhood diseases before the change of teeth there is an inappropriate predominance of the nerve-sense system. The healthy period lies between the change of teeth and puberty; and after puberty the metabolic-limb organism, with its quicker rhythm, begins to predominate. This quicker rhythm then expresses itself in everything connected with deposits of metabolism which form because the plastic organization from the side of the head does not meet them properly. The result of this is that the products of metabolism invariably get the upper hand.
I am very sorry that I can speak of these things only in a cursory, aphoristic way, but my aim is to indicate at least the goal of such thoughts, which is to see that the functional aspect in the human being is primary, and that formations and deformations must basically be regarded as proceeding from this functional aspect. This is expressed outwardly in the fact that up to the seventh year of the child's life the plastic, shaping forces work with particular strength. The plastic structure of the organs is developed by the nerve-sense system to such a point that the plastic molding of teeth, for example, up to the time of the second dentition, is an activity that is not repeated. In contrast to this, the permeation of the organism by the metabolism enters an entirely new phase when—as happens at puberty—a portion of the metabolism is given over to the sexual organs. This leads to a thorough change in the metabolism.
It is terribly important to make a methodical and detailed study of the matters I have indicated to you. The results thus obtained can then be coordinated in a truly scientific sense if they are brought into line with what I told you at the end of the last lecture, if they are related to the working of the cosmos outside the human being.
How, then, can we approach therapeutically everything that radiates out in such a complicated way from the kidney system, from the liver system? We simply need to call forth changes by working on it from outside. We can approach it if we hold fast to what can be observed in the plant—I mean, the contrast between the principle of growth that is derived from the preceding year or years, and those principles of growth that stem from the immediate present. Let us return once more to the plant. In the root and up to the ovary and seed-forming process we have what is old in the plant, belonging to the previous year. In everything that develops around the petals we have what belongs to the present. And in the formation of the green leaves the past and the present are working together. Past and present, as two component factors, have united to produce the leaves.
Now everything in nature is interrelated, just as everything is interrelated in the human organism, in the complex way I have described. The point is to understand the relationships. Everything in nature is related reciprocally, and by a simpler classification of these relationships revealed in the plant we come to the following.
In the terminology of an older, more instinctive medicine (which we by no means want to renew; I only mention it so that we can understand one another better), we find constant mention of the sulfurous or the phosphoric. These sulfurous or phosphoric elements exist in those parts of the plant that represent the forces of the present year—in the blossom, not in the ovary and stigma. When you therefore make a tea from these particular organs of the plant (thereby extracting also what is minerally active in them) you obtain the phosphoric or sulfurous aspect. It is totally incorrect to imagine that the doctors of ancient times thought of phosphorus and sulfur in the sense of modern chemistry. They conceived of them in the way I have indicated. According to ancient medicine, a tea prepared from the petals of the red poppy, for instance, would have been “phosphoric” or “sulfurous.” On the other hand, in a preparation derived from a treatment of a plant's leaves (naturally you get totally different results depending on whether you use pine needles, for example, or cabbage leaves for your decoction) we get the mercurial element, as it was called in ancient terminology. This mercurial element is not the same as what is also called quicksilver. And everything that is connected with the root, the stem, and the seed was for ancient medicine connected with the salt-like element.
I am saying these things only for the sake of clarity, for with our modern natural scientific knowledge we cannot go back to older conceptions. A series of investigations should be made to show, let us say, the effects of an extract prepared from the roots of some plant on the head organization, and hence on certain diseases common to childhood.
A highly significant regulating principle will come to light if we investigate the effects of substances drawn from the roots and seeds of plants on the organization of the child before the change of teeth. For illnesses of the kind that are acquired from outside—and, fundamentally speaking, all illnesses between the change of teeth and puberty are of this kind—we obtain remedies, or at least preparations that have an effect upon such illnesses, from leaves and everything akin to the nature of leaves in the plant. I am speaking in the old sense here of the mercurial element, which we meet in a stronger form in mercury, in quicksilver itself, though it is not identical with this substance. The fact that mercury is a specific remedy for externally acquired sexual diseases is connected with this.
What manifests in sexual diseases is really nothing but the intensification of illnesses that may arise in an extremely mild form in the second period of life. The sexual diseases themselves are only a more potent form of what can be acquired externally from age seven to fourteen, until puberty. Before puberty they do not develop into sexual diseases proper, because the human being is not yet sexually mature. If it were otherwise, a great many diseases would attack the sexual organs. Those who can really observe this transition from the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth years, on into the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth years, will see that symptoms that arise in earlier life in quite another way express themselves at this age as abnormalities of the sexual life.
Then there are diseases that have their origin primarily in the metabolism, in so far as the metabolism is bound up with the physical and etheric systems of the human being. These diseases must be considered in connection with the workings of the petal nature of plants.
The cursory way of dealing with these matters that is unfortunately necessary here may make a great deal appear fantastic. Everything can nevertheless be verified in detail. The obstacles that make these things so unapproachable to orthodox medicine are really due to the fact that, to begin with, they all seem beyond the range of verification. This is because we have to reckon with complicated phenomena in the human organism such as the particularly striking example that I spoke about at the beginning of this lecture. I described it in such a way that it appeared irreconcilable with what I said yesterday. This confusion clears up, however, when we see that what proceeds from the liver-kidney organization appears first in its counterreactions, and in this sense it represents something quite essential for the ego organism and astral organism of the human being. In this case it is especially evident, but in a similar way there is a direct cooperation and counterreaction between the rhythms of the blood circulation and of the breathing in man's middle system. Here, too, many an influence that proceeds from the rhythm of the blood must first be looked for in the beat of the breathing rhythm, and vice versa.
Now connect this with the fact that the human organization, for example, really lives in the inner warmth-man, as I said this morning, and that this warmth-man then permeates the airy, the gaseous man. In the forces proceeding from the ego and astral organisms, we then have seen physically something that is working primarily from the warmth organization and the airy, gaseous organization. This is what we have to see in the organism of the very young child. We must see the cause of childhood diseases by studying the warmth and airy organizations in the human being. The effects that appear if we approach the warmth and airy organizations with preparations derived from roots and seeds are caused by the fact that two polar ways of working collide with each other, the one stimulating the other. Substances arising from the seed or root organizations and introduced into the organism stimulate everything that emerges from the warmth organization and the airy organization of the human being.
Through this I merely wished to indicate to you that in the influences working from above downward, so to speak, we can discern in the human being, from the very outset, a warmth-air vibration that is strongest in childhood, although in reality it is not a vibration but an organic structure taking its course in time. What goes from below upward in the physical-etheric organism is the solid and fluid organization of the human being. These two are in mutual interaction, inasmuch as the fluid and gaseous organizations permeate one another in the middle, bringing forth an intermediate phase of the states of aggregation by their mutual penetration, just as there exists in the human organism the well-known intermediate stage between the solid and the fluid. So likewise in the living and sentient organisms we must look for an intermediate phase between the fluid and the gaseous, and again a phase between the gaseous and the element of warmth.
Please note that everything I am expressing here in a physiological sense has a significance for pathology and therapy. When we look into the human being who is organized in such a complex way, we find that one system of organs is continually pouring its influences into another system of organs. If you now study the whole organic action expressed in one of the sense organs, in the ear, for example, you will find the following: ego organization, astral organization, etheric and physical organizations are all working together in a certain way so that the metabolism permeates the nerve-sense being; this is then permeated by rhythm through the processes of breathing, in so for as they work into the organ of hearing; it is permeated by rhythm and organization through the blood rhythm, in so far as this penetrates the organ of hearing. Everything that I have thus tried to make transparent for you in these ways, threefold and fourfold (in the three members of the human being and in the four organizations that I have explained)—all this finds expression in definite relationships in every single organ. And in the long run, everything in the human being is in metamorphosis.
For instance, consider what appears normal in the region of the ear—why do we call it normal? Because it appears precisely as it does in order that the human being can come into existence, can come into existence as he lives and moves on earth. There is no other reason for us to call it normal. But consider now the special relationships that work in shaping the ear by virtue of the ear's position, notably by virtue of the fact that the ear is at the periphery of the organism. Suppose that these relationships were working in such a way that a similar relationship arose by metamorphosis at some other place within the organism, a similar reciprocal relationship to all these members. Instead of the reciprocal relationship that is appropriate to that place within the body, something incorporates itself into this place that wants to become an ear. (Forgive this very sketchy way of hinting at the facts. I cannot express what I want to say in any other way, as I am obliged to say it in the briefest outline. ) For instance, this may incorporate itself in the region of the pylorus, in place of what should arise there. In a pathological metamorphosis of this kind we have to see the origin of tumorous formations. In fact, all tumorous formations up to carcinoma are really displaced attempts at the formation of sense organs. If you penetrate the human organism in the right way regarding such a pathological formation, you will find what part is played in the child's organization—even the embryonic organization—by the organisms of warmth and air in order to bring these sense organs into being. These organs can indeed be brought into being in the right way only through the organisms of warmth and air encountering the solid and fluid organisms, which results in a formation composed of both factors. This means that it is necessary for us to look into this relationship existing between the physical organism (in so far as this expresses itself in the metabolism, for example) and the formative, plastic organism (in so far as this expresses itself in the nerve-sense system). We must see, so to speak, how the metabolic organism radiates out that which carries the substance in a radial way, and how the substance is plastically molded in the organs by what the nerve-sense system carries to meet it.
Bearing this in mind, we shall learn to understand in what way we can really approach a tumor formation. We can only approach a tumor formation by saying that there is a false relationship between the physical-etheric organism on the one side, in so far as it expresses itself in metabolism, and the ego organism and astral organism on the other side, in so far as they express themselves in the warmth and airy organisms respectively. Ultimately, therefore, we have above all to deal with the relationship of the metabolism to the warmth organization in the human being, and in the case of an internal tumor—although it is also possible with an external tumor—The best treatment is to envelop the tumor with a mantle of warmth.(I shall speak of these things tomorrow when we come to consider therapy.) We must succeed in enveloping the tumor with a mantle of warmth. This brings about a radical change in the whole organization. If we succeed in surrounding the tumor with a mantle of warmth, then—speaking primitively—we shall also succeed in dissolving it. This can actually be achieved by the proper use of certain remedies that have probably been suggested to you by our physicians, which are then injected into the human organism. We may be sure that in every case a preparation of viscum (mistletoe), applied in the way we advise around the abnormal organ (for instance around the carcinomatous growth) will generate a mantle of warmth, but we must first have ascertained its specific effect upon this or that system of organs. We cannot, of course, apply exactly the same preparation to carcinoma of the breast as to carcinoma of the uterus or of the pylorus. One must study the path taken by what is produced by the injection, but you will achieve nothing unless you bring about a real reaction. This reaction comes to expression as a state of feverishness. The injection must be followed by a feverish condition. You can at once expect failure if you do not succeed in evoking a condition of feverishness.
I wanted to lead you to this principle so that you could see that these things depend upon a ratio; but the ratio is merely a regulating principle. You will see that these regulating principles can be verified, as all such facts are verified by the methods of modern medicine. There is no question of asking you to accept these things before they have been verified, but anyone who really looks into these things today can make remarkable discoveries.
Although this brief exposition may at first be somewhat confusing, everything will become clear to you if you go into the subject deeply. Everything that I have presented to you today can be verified in a remarkable way if only you take the proper facts that are reported in the literature. These things are reported somewhere, and you need only connect them then with the picture presented today. This is particularly the case if you bring this into connection with something else, with the many comments found in the literature that one can only reach a certain point in these matters and then go no further. Thus you will find confirmation from two sides in existing medicine for what I have suggested sketchily today.
Tomorrow I will allow myself to speak about therapeutic matters, and then things will be clarified further that may not be clear to you today because of the sketchy method of presentation.
Dritter Vortrag
Wenn wir immer weiterkommen darin, den menschlichen Organismus in der Weise anzusehen, wie ich es zu meinem Leidwesen allerdings nur andeuten konnte, dann wird eben gerade für die Beurteilung des gesunden und kranken Menschen manches wichtig, das man in seiner Vollwertigkeit sonst nicht richtig sieht. So sieht man heute noch außerordentlich wenig auf dasjenige, was ich versucht habe, die Dreigliederung der menschlichen physischen Wesenheit in dem Anhange von meinem Buche «Von Seelenrätseln» zu nennen. Dennoch beruht auf der richtigen Einschätzung dieser Dreigliederung des physischen Menschen außerordentlich viel in bezug auf das pathologische Element wie auf das therapeutische.
Diese Dreigliederung des physischen Menschen ist so gemeint, daß alles dasjenige, was Nerven-Sinnessystem ist, vorzugweise als im Kopf lokalisiert angesehen werden muß, daß aber selbstverständlich diese Kopforganisation dann über den ganzen Menschen ausgebreitet ist, so daß zum Beispiel alles dasjenige, was in der menschlichen Haut, aber auch innerhalb der menschlichen Organisation als NervenSinnesfunktion bezeichnet werden muß, durchaus dazugehört. Nur mit Bezug auf die Wirkungsweisen im menschlichen Organismus kann man nicht zu einer begründeten Ansicht kommen, wenn man nicht zunächst theoretisch das Nerven-Sinnessystem aus der gesamten übrigen Organisation heraushebt.
Als zweites System habe ich dann unterschieden das rhythmische System des Menschen, das alles umfaßt im Funktionellen, was einem Rhythmus unterliegt, also hauptsächlich natürlich in erster Linie das Atmungssystem in Verbindung mit dem Blutzirkulationssystem, auch dann im weiteren Sinne jenen Rhythmus, der wenigstens im wesentlichen für den Menschen gilt, wenn der Mensch ihn auch vielfach durchbrechen kann, als Tag-Nachtrhythmus, als Rhythmus des Schlafens und Wachens, und auch alles übrige Rhythmische, auch das Rhythmische in der Nahrungsaufnahme und so weiter. Diese letzteren Dinge werden allerdings vom Menschen durchbrochen, allein dasjenige, was sich als Ergebnis der Durchbrechung herausstellt, muß wiederum in einer gewissen Weise durch Regulatoren, die sich im Organismus finden, ausgeglichen werden. So daß wir also als zweites Glied der menschlichen Organisation den rhythmischen Menschen anzusehen haben, und als drittes Glied den Stoffwechselorganismus, zu dem ich auch noch den Gliedmaßenorganismus rechne, weil dasjenige, was sich funktionell durch die Bewegung der Gliedmaßen abspielt, in innigem Zusammenhang mit dem Stoffwechsel im allgemeinen steht.
Wenn man diese Dreigliederung des Menschen nimmt, dann kommt man darauf, daß dasjenige, was ich nun bezeichnet habe heute morgen als die Organisation des Menschen, die vorzugsweise mit dem Ich zusammenhängt, eine gewisse Beziehung hat zu dem Stoffwechselmenschen, aber eben insofern sich dieser Stoffwechselmensch über die ganze menschliche Wesenheit ausdehnt. Und wiederum hat der rhythmische Mensch eine gewisse Beziehung zu demjenigen, was ich heute morgen bezeichnet habe als das Herz-Lungensystem. Und wiederum hat dann dasjenige, was ich heute morgen bezeichnet habe als Nierenfunktion, als vom Nierensystem ausgehend, eine gewisse Beziehung zu demjenigen, was ich heute morgen bezeichnet habe als die astralische Organisation des Menschen. Kurz, der dreigliedrige Mensch hat eine gewisse Beziehung zu den einzelnen Wesensgliedern der übersinnlichen Menschennatur und damit auch zu den einzelnen Organsystemen, wie ich das heute morgen auseinandergesetzt habe. Aber man muß nun die Beziehungen im einzelnen genauer betrachten, wenn sie einen wirklichen Wert haben sollten für die Erkenntnis des gesunden und kranken Menschen, und da ist es wohl am besten, wenn man ausgeht von dem rhythmischen Menschen, von der rhythmischen Organisation des Menschen.
Diese rhythmische Organisation des Menschen ist es gerade, welche sehr häufig in bezug auf eine ganz bestimmte Eigenschaft nicht richtig gewürdigt wird, das ist das Verhältnis, das sich herausstellt zwischen dem Rhythmus der Blutzirkulation und dem Rhythmus des Atmens. Beim erwachsenen Menschen ist ja dieses Verhältnis nahezu dasjenige von vier zu eins. Es ist das natürlich nur ein approximatives, ein Durchschnittsverhältnis, und gerade darin, wie sich dieses ganze Verhältnis spezialisiert für die einzelne menschliche Individualität, drückt sich etwas aus von dem Maße von Gesundheit und Krankheit, die im menschlichen Organismus sind. Und dasjenige, was uns in diesem rhythmischen Menschen als ein Verhältnis von vier zu eins erscheint, das setzt sich eigentlich fort für den gesamten Menschen. Und wir haben — wir können das durchaus wiederum, wie ich heute morgen für andere Dinge sagte, durch sinnenfällig-empirische Tatsachenreihen verifizieren — durchaus ein Verhältnis von vier zu eins mit Bezug auf die Entwickelung des Stoffwechselmenschen, zu dem dann der Gliedmaßenmensch gehört — ich sage der Einfachheit wegen des Stoffwechselmenschen —, zu dem Nerven-Sinnesmenschen. Dieses Verhältnis geht so weit, daß wir in der Tat sagen können: Alles, was zusammenhängt mit dem menschlichen Stoffwechsel, spielt sich in seinen Prozessen ungefähr mit viermal so großer Schnelligkeit ab, als alles dasjenige, was für das Wachstum des Menschen folgt aus der Nerven-Sinnesorganisation. Wir können geradezu sagen: Wir haben mit dem zweiten Zahnen des Kindes, mit dem Erhalten der zweiten Zähne beim Kinde, einen Ausdruck desjenigen, was im Stoffwechselsystem des Menschen vor sich geht gewissermaßen dadurch, daß dieses Stoffwechselsystem des Menschen fortwährend anschlägt an das Nerven-Sinnessystem, aber daß alles dasjenige, was aus dem Stoffwechselsystem des Menschen sich dann fortsetzt nach dem mittleren, nach dem rhythmischen System, zu dem, was sich fortsetzt aus dem Nerven-Sinnessystem in das rhythmische System, sich verhält im Tempo wie vier zu eins. Genau gesprochen ist das so: Wir können in dem Atmungssystem die rhythmische Fortsetzung des NervenSinnessystems sehen, und wir können in dem Zirkulationssystem die rhythmische Fortsetzung des Stoffwechselsystems sehen. Wir können sagen: Das Stoffwechselsystem sendet gewissermaßen seine Wirkungen herauf in den rhythmischen Menschen, also das dritte Glied der menschlichen Organisation in das zweite Glied hinein, was sich ausdrückt durch den Rhythmus der Blutzirkulation im täglichen Leben. Das Nerven-Sinnessystem schickt seine Wirkungen in das Atmungssystem hinein, und das drückt sich aus durch den Rhythmus des Atmens. So daß wir im rhythmischen Menschen, in dem wir das Verhältnis von vier zu eins beobachten können — etliche siebzig Pulsschläge zu achtzehn Atemzügen —, gewissermaßen das Aufeinanderstoßen des Nerven-Sinnessystems und des Stoffwechselsystems haben in dem Verhältnis der Rhythmen, und das, wie gesagt, können wir noch beobachten in irgendeiner Lebensepoche des Menschen, wenn wir das Verhältnis alles desjenigen, was überhaupt in den menschlichen Vorgängen vom Stoffwechsel kommt, in seinem Zusammenstoß betrachten mit demjenigen, was ausgeht vom Kopfsystem, vom Nerven-Sinnessystem. Das ist ein außerordentlich wichtiges Verhältnis. Und wir können eben geradezu sagen: In dem zweiten Zahnen des Kindes haben wir ein Heraufstoßen des Stoffwechselsystems bis in den Kopf, aber so, daß bei der Begegnung des Stoffwechselsystems mit dem Nerven-Sinnessystem das Nerven-Sinnessystem zunächst überwiegt.
Es wird Ihnen das gleich aus den folgenden Auseinandersetzungen klar sein. Wir können also sagen: Wenn das Kind so um das siebente Jahr herum seine zweiten Zähne bekommt, so ist das ein Zusammenschlagen des Stoffwechselsystems und des Nerven-Sinnessystems, so aber, daß präponderiert die Wirkung des Nerven-Sinnessystems, und die Resultierende dieses Zusammenstoßes — gewissermaßen sind das die Komponenten, die vom Nerven-Sinnessystem und vom Stoffwechselsystem ausgehen —, die Resultierende ist dasjenige, was dann zu der Entwickelung der zweiten Zähne führt.
Wiederum in derjenigen Lebensepoche, welche die Geschlechtsreife des Menschen bringt, haben wir ein neuerliches Zusammenstoßen des Stoffwechselsystems und des Nerven-Sinnessystems. Aber so, daß jetzt das Stoffwechselsystem überwiegt, prädominiert, was sich zum Beispiel beim männlichen Geschlechte dadurch ausdrückt, daß selbst die Stimme, die zunächst bis in dieses Lebensalter hinein wesentlich eine Ausdrucksform war des Nerven-Sinnessystems, sich verändert dadurch, daß das Stoffwechselsystem gewissermaßen heraufschlägt und die Stimme dumpfer macht. Verstehen können wir diese Wirkungen dadurch, daß wir beobachten, wieviel in diesen Wirkungen liegt auf der einen Seite von denjenigen Ausstrahlungen im menschlichen Organismus, die im Nierensystem in der heute angedeuteten Weise ihren Ursprung haben und im Leber-Gallensystem, und auf der anderen Seite ihren Ursprung haben in der Kopfes- und in der Hautorganisation, also eigentlich in dem, was zugrunde liegt dem Nerven-Sinnessystem. Das ist ein außerordentlich interessantes Verhältnis, etwas, das, man könnte sagen, in die tiefsten Tiefen der menschlichen Organisation hineinführt. Es ist so, daß man sich geradezu das Bilden, das Gestalten des Organismus so vorstellen kann, daß Ausstrahlungen stattfinden von seiten — nun sagen wir — des Nieren-Lebersystems, denen begegnen die plastischen Abformungen des Kopfsystems. Und will man sich schematisch dasjenige, was da geschieht, zeichnen, so müßte man das so zeichnen (es wird gezeichnet). Man müßte sagen: Von dem Leber-Nierensystem finden solche Ausstrahlungen statt — natürlich nicht nur nach oben, sondern nach allen Seiten hin —, diese Ausstrahlungen, die haben die Tendenz, halbradial zu wirken, aber sie werden überall! von den plastischen Formungen abgestumpft, die ihnen vom Kopfsystem aus begegnen. So daß wir die Form der Lunge dadurch begreifen, daß wir ihre Gestalt plastisch ausgestaltet denken vom Leber-Nierensystem, aber entgegenkommend diesen Komponenten diejenigen, die abrunden, vom Kopfsystem aus. Die ganze menschliche Bildung nämlich kommt dadurch zustande, daß wir uns denken: radiale Gestaltung vom Nieren-Lebersystem aus, Abrundung der radialen Gestaltung vom Kopfsystem aus.
Auf diese Weise bekommen wir die außerordentlich wichtige Tatsache, die empirisch in allen Einzelheiten belegt werden kann, daß im menschlichen Organisieren, namentlich im menschlichen Wachstum, zwei Kräftekomponenten tätig sind: diejenigen Kräftekomponenten, die vom Leber-Nierensystem ausgehen, und die Kräftekomponenten, die abrunden die Formen, die sie gestalten, die ihnen die Oberfläche geben, diese Komponenten, die vom Nerven-Sinnessystem ausgehen. Beide Komponenten stoßen ineinander, aber sie stoßen nicht ineinander in demselben Rhythmus, sie stoßen in verschiedenem Rhythmus ineinander. Alles dasjenige, was vom Leber-Nierensystem ausgeht, hat den Rhythmus des Stoffwechselmenschen. Und alles dasjenige, was vom Kopfsystem ausgeht, hat eben den Rhythmus des NervenSinnesmenschen. Das heißt, wenn der Mensch bereit ist durch seine Organisation, die zweiten Zähne zu bekommen so um das siebente Jahr herum, so ist er in seiner Stoffwechselorganisation, in alledem, was vom Nieren-Lebersystem ausgeht und was ja gestoßen wird, möchte ich sagen, von jenem Rhythmus, der der Herzrhythmus ist, unterworfen einem Rhythmus, der sich zu dem anderen Rhythmus, der ihm vom Kopfe aus entgegenkommt, verhält wie vier zu eins. So daß der Mensch eigentlich erst im achtundzwanzigsten Jahre seines Lebens mit Bezug auf die Kopforganiisation so weit ist, wie er mit sieben Jahren in bezug auf seine Stoffwechselorganisation ist. Das heißt, das plastische Prinzip des Menschen schreitet langsamer vor als das ausstrahlende, das unplastische Prinzip. Viermal so langsam schreitet das plastische Prinzip vor. Damit hängt es zusammen, daß wir in bezug auf dasjenige, was aus unserem Stoffwechsel kommt, am Ende des siebenten Jahres ungefähr so weit sind, wie wir in bezug auf unser gesamtes Wachstumsverhältnis, insofern es dem NervenSinnessystem unterliegt, erst im achtundzwanzigsten Lebensjahre sind. So daß also der Mensch in dieser Weise ein kompliziertes Wesen ist, daß in ihm eigentlich zwei Strömungen, zwei Bewegungsströmungen tätig sind, die einem ganz verschiedenen Rhythmus unterliegen. Und wir können also sagen, daß zum Beispiel dieses zweite Zahnen dadurch entsteht, daß zunächst dasjenige, was mit dem Stoffwechsel zusammenhängt, anstößt an das langsamere, aber intensivere plastische Prinzip, so daß wir in dem Zahnen haben ein Präponderieren des plastischen Elementes. In der Epoche der Geschlechtsreife haben wir ein Präponderieren des Stoffwechselelementes; da zieht sich gewissermaßen das plastische Element zurück, was sich eben im männlichen Geschlechte durch die bekannte Erscheinung zum Ausdruck bringt.
Mit dem aber hängen andere Dinge in der menschlichen Organiisation zusammen. Mit alledem hängt alles das zusammen, daß eigentlich die größte Möglichkeit für den Menschen, krank zu werden, im Grunde in die Lebenszeit fällt bis zum zweiten Zahnen, und zwar so, daß die größte Möglichkeit, krank zu werden, da ist in der allerersten Lebensepoche. Dann, mit dem zweiten Zahnen, hört eigentlich die innere Veranlagung des Menschen zur Krankheit stark auf. Dieses Verhältnis genau zu studieren, war mir eigentlich auferlegt durch unsere Pädagogik, die wir ausbilden mußten. Denn man kann tatsächlich keine rationelle Pädagogik begründen ohne diese Grundlagen über den gesunden und kranken Menschen. Der Mensch ist eigentlich durch seine innere Wesenheit in der zweiten Lebensepoche, vom Zahnwechsel bis zur Geschlechtsreife, am allergesündesten. Dann beginnt für ihn wieder eine Epoche, wo er unschwer erkrankt. Nun ist das Krankwerden in der ersten Lebensepoche bis zum Zahnwechsel hin im Grunde genommen etwas ganz anderes als das Krankwerden nach der Geschlechtsreife. Diese zwei Möglichkeiten des Krankwerdens sind so verschieden, möchte ich sagen, wie das Bekommen der zweiten Zähne von dem Stimmwechsel bei den Knaben verschieden ist. Das ist so, daß während der ersten Lebensepoche bis zum Zahnwechsel beim Kinde alles ausgeht von der Nerven-Sinnesorganisation bis in die äußersten Peripherien des menschlichen Organismus. Es geht eigentlich alles aus von der Nerven-Sinnesorganisation. Die Nerven-Sinnesorganisation, die noch beim Zahnwechsel prädominiert, die ist es, von der auch die pathologischen Erscheinungen in der ersten menschlichen Lebensepoche ausgehen. Und Sie werden über diese pathologischen Erscheinungen ein totales Urteil, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, bekommen, wenn Sie sich die Sache so anschauen, wenn Sie sich sagen: Da zeigt sich doch ganz klar, daß dasjenige, was vom Nieren-Lebersystem ausstrahlt, abgestumpft gewissermaßen wird, plastisch abgestumpft wird vom plastizierenden Prinzip des Nerven-Sinnesmenschen, und in diesem plastizierenden Element des Nerven-Sinnesmenschen wirkt nun vorzugsweise dasjenige, was ich in diesen Vorträgen bezeichnet habe als zusammenhängend mit der Ich-Organisation des Menschen und mit der astralischen Organisation des Menschen.
Sehen Sie, es ist merkwürdig, daß ich früher sagen mußte, daß die Ich-Organisation vom Leber-Gallensystem ausgeht, daß die astralische Organisation vom Nierensystem ausgeht, und daß ich jetzt sagen muß: Von der Kopforganisation her kommt alles dasjenige, was mit der Ich-Organisation und mit der astralischen Organisation zusammenhängt. Man kommt nämlich niemals mit der menschlichen Organisation in ihrer ungeheuren Kompliziertheit zurecht, wenn man die Dinge nur so geradlinig beschreibt, daß man also sagt: IchOrganisation geht aus vom Leber-Gallensystem, astralische Organisation geht aus vom Leber-Nierensystem, und man bleibt dabei. Man muß sich nämlich darüber klar sein, daß in der ersten Lebensepoche des Menschen bis zum Zahnwechsel diese Ausstrahlungen vom Leber- und vom Nierensystem abgestumpft werden vom Nerven-Sinnessystem her, und daß diese Abstumpfung das Wesentliche ist, daß also dasjenige, was für das Ich und die astralische Organisation des Menschen vom Leber-Gallensystem und vom Nierensystem herkommt, sich kurioserweise zeigt als Gegenstrahlung, nicht in seinem direkten Wege von unten nach oben, sondern es zeigt sich von oben nach unten in seiner Gegenstrahlung. Und wir haben die ganze kindliche Organisation eigentlich so, daß wir uns vorzustellen haben: das Astralische strahlt aus vom Nierensystem, die Ich-Organisation strahlt aus vom Lebersystem, aber diese Ausstrahlungen haben keine Bedeutung, sondern das Lebersystem wird gewissermaßen reflektiert vom Kopfsystem, das Nierensystem wird reflektiert vom Kopfsystem, und erst die Reflexion in den Organismus hinein erscheint als das wirksame Prinzip. So daß Sie sich sagen müssen: Wie betrachte ich in dem Kinde die astralische Organisation? — Ich betrachte in dem Kinde die astralische Organisation so, daß ich die Nierenwirkungen betrachte, aber in ihrer Rückstrahlung vom Kopfsystem. Wie betrachte ich in dem Kinde die Ich-Organisation? — So, daß ich die Leber-Gallenwirkungen betrachte, aber in ihrer Rückwirkung vom Kopfsystem aus. Und das eigentlich physische System und das ätherische System, die wirken von unten nach oben, die physische Organisation mit ihrem Ausgangspunkte im Verdauungssystem, und vom Herz-Lungensystem die ätherische Organisation. Die wirken von unten nach oben und die andern von oben nach unten für die erste Lebensepoche des Menschen; und in die Strahlung von unten nach oben wirkt hinein jener Rhythmus, der sich zu jener Strahlung von oben nach unten verhält wie vier zu eins.
Es ist schade, daß man das so kurz andeuten muß, aber in diesem, was ich jetzt andeute, liegt tatsächlich der Aufschluß über die Vorgänge des kindlichen Lebensalters. So daß, wenn Sie gerade die auffälligsten Kinderkrankheiten studieren wollen, Sie diese in zwei Gruppen teilen können, daß Sie folgendes herausbekommen müssen: Wenn Sie die auffälligsten Kinderkrankheiten studieren, so werden Sie finden, daß sie auf der einen Seite beruhen darauf, daß dem von unten nach oben Strahlenden das von oben nach unten Strahlende entgegenkommt mit dem Rhythmus von vier zu eins, aber daß das zu keinem Ausgleich kommt. Und wenn dasjenige, was den Rhythmus vier hat, was von unten noch oben strahlt, das ist, das sich nicht eingliedern will in die menschliche Individualität, während der vererbte Rhythmus der Kopforganisation mit eins eigentlich in Ordnung ist, dann entstehen alle diejenigen Krankheiten, die wir am kindlichen Organismus haben, und die dennoch eben Stoffwechselkrankheiten sind, aber solche Stoffwechselkrankheiten, die eben aus einer Stauung gegen das Nerven-Sinnessystem entstehen, so daß sich der Stoffwechsel nicht in der entsprechenden Weise anpassen kann dem, was vom Nerven-Sinnessystem ausstrahlt, und wir bekommen zum Beispiel — ich kann nur Beispiele anführen — jene merkwürdige Blutkrankheit bei den Kindern, die zu einer Art eitrigen Blutes führt. Wir bekommen auch alle anderen Kinderkrankheiten auf diese Weise, die wir als Stoffwechselkrankheiten eben bezeichnen können. Ist dagegen der Stoffwechselorganismus der kindlichen Individualität angepaßt, sind namentlich die hygienischen Verhältnisse vernünftig, so daß das Kind ordentlich seiner Umgebung angepaßt ist, das heißt, gibt man ihm ordentlich zu essen, ist aber durch irgendwelche Vererbungsverhältnisse das Nerven-Sinnessystem, das von oben nach unten wirkt und von dessen Wirkungen mitgenommen werden die Ausstrahlungen des LeberGallensystems und des Nierensystems, nicht in Ordnung, dann entstehen alle krampfhaften Kinderkrankheiten, von denen wir sagen müssen, sie beruhen darauf, daß die Ich-Organisation und die astralische Organisation nicht ordentlich hineinkönnen in die physische und ätherische Organisation.
Von zwei entgegengesetzten Seiten her also entstehen die Krankheiten des kindlichen Organismus. Aber immer ist es so, daß wir beikommen können diesen Erkrankungen des kindlichen Organismus doch nur dadurch, daß wir nach der Kopf- und der Nerven-Sinnesorganisation hin unser Augenmerk lenken. Denn im Grunde genommen müssen wir auch den Stoffwechsel des Kindes so gestalten, daß er sich nicht nur an die äußeren Verhältnisse anpaßt, sondern daß er sich auch an die Nerven-Sinnesorganisation anpaßt. In diesem ersten Lebensalter des Menschen bis zum Zahnwechsel ist notwendig, daß wir eine gründliche Erkenntnis des Nerven-Sinnessystems eben des Menschen entwickeln, eine praktische Erkenntnis, und daß wir da wirklich darauf sehen, daß beim Kinde alles ausstrahlt von der Kopforganisation, nur eben der Stoffwechsel sich vordrängen kann dadurch, daß er in Ordnung ist und die Kopforganisation durch hereditäre Verhältnisse zu schwach sein könnte.
Wenn nun die zweite Lebensepoche des Menschen eintritt, die vom Zahnwechsel bis zur Geschlechtsreife geht, dann ist der rhythmische Organismus derjenige, von dem selbst alles ausstrahlt. Und wesentlich tätig ist dabei die astralische und die ätherische Organisation des Menschen. In die astralische und in die ätherische Organisation des Menschen strahlt zwischen dem Zahnwechsel und der Geschlechtsreife alles dasjenige hinein, was das Atmungssystem und das Zirkulationssystem in ihren Funktionen vollführen. Weil diese Systeme eigentlich von außen in Ordnung gehalten werden können, ist der Mensch in diesem Lebensalter durch seine eigene Organisation am allergesündesten. Wir können Schulkinder im schulpflichtigen Volksschulalter eigentlich sehr wohl gesundheitlich verderben, wenn wir schlechte hygienische, sanitäre Verhältnisse an sie heranbringen, während wir in der ersten Lebensepoche eigentlich nicht in derselben Weise von außen sorgen können. Das ist dasjenige, was einem eine so ungeheure Verantwortung auferlegt mit Bezug auf den medizinischen Teil der Pädagogik, daß man ganz genau wissen kann aus einer wirklichen Menschenerkenntnis heraus: Du hast im Grunde genommen dasjenige verschuldet, was an Krankheitsursachen im wesentlichen auftritt zwischen dem siebenten und vierzehnten Lebensjahre. Also gerade für das volksschulpflichtige Alter, da ist der Mensch nicht eigentlich von sich abhängig, sondern er paßt sich seiner Umgebung an in seiner Atmung, eben durch das Einatmen der Luft und durch dasjenige, was durch den Stoffwechsel in seiner Zirkulation sich ausdrückt. Der Stoffwechsel hängt immer mit der Gliedmaßenorganisation zusammen. Wenn man die Kinder nicht ordentlich turnen läßt, nicht ordentlich sich Bewegung machen läßt, züchtet man äußere Krankheitsursachen. Das ist dasjenige, was die Grundlage bildet für das Studium einer wirklich ordentlichen Volksschulpädagogik. Es müssen alle Verhältnisse, auch Unterrichtsverhältnisse, so eingerichtet werden, daß man diesem Rechnung trägt.
Sehen Sie, das tut unsere Zeit nicht. Sie können das aus folgendem entnehmen: Es wird in der sogenannten Experimentalpsychologie, die in gewisser Beziehung etwas Großartiges bedeutet — ich kann ihre Bedeutung schon würdigen —, neben anderen Sünden zum Beispiel die Sünde gemacht, nun, daß man sagt: Wenn das Kind diese Stunden hat, ermüdet es so, und wenn das Kind andere Stunden hat, ermüdet es so —, und so weiter. Und daraus schließt man, wie man den Lehrplan machen soll, nach den Ermüdungsverhältnissen, die man so feststellt. Ja, die Frage ist ganz falsch gestellt, die Frage muß anders gestellt werden. Man hat es von dem siebenten bis zum vierzehnten Jahre, Gott sei Dank, nur zu tun mit dem rhythmischen Menschen, der im Prinzip überhaupt nicht ermüdet. Denn wenn er ermüden würde, so könnte unser Herz zum Beispiel seine Bewegungen nicht ausführen, wenn wir schlafen, durch die ganze irdische Lebenszeit hindurch. Ebenso werden unsere Atmungsbewegungen ohne Ermüdung ausgeführt. Wenn also jemand sagt: er muß das berücksichtigen, was als eine große oder geringe Ermüdung sich im Experimente ausdrückt, so müßte er schließen: er hat eigentlich etwas Falsches gemacht, wenn das eintritt. Unser Ideal muß sein, zwischen dem siebenten und vierzehnten Jahre überhaupt nicht auf das Kopfsystem in erster Linie zu wirken, sondern auf das rhythmische System. Das tun wir, wenn wir künstlerisch unsere Erziehung gestalten. Da wirken wir auf das rhythmische System, und da werden wir sehen, daß wir dasjenige, was man heute erforscht aus dem falschen Unterrichte als die Ermüdungsverhältnisse, gerade korrigieren. Man kann nämlich zum Beispiel auch durch falsches Belasten des Gedächtnisses, wenn auch in einer leisen Weise, aber immerhin auf die Atmungsbewegungen einen Einfluß ausüben, der sich dann erst in einem späteren Lebensalter zeigt. Wenn das Kind dann die Geschlechtsreife hat und nachher, dann ist das Entgegengesetzte der Fall. Da tritt wiederum dasjenige auf, was, ich möchte sagen, als Krankheitsursachen da sein kann im Menschen selber, nämlich in seinem eigenen StoffwechselGliedmaßenorganismus, was dadurch angerichtet wird, daß die Stoffe, die er als Nahrungsmittel aufnimmt, ihre eigenen Gesetze geltend machen, und da haben wir es zu tun mit einer vorherrschenden Wirkung des physischen und ätherischen Organismus in bezug auf die menschliche Organisation.
So daß wir es also zu tun haben beim kindlichen Organismus auf dem Umwege durch das Nerven-Sinnessystem mit der Ich-Organisation und mit der astralischen Organisation; in der Zeit vom Zahnwechsel bis zur Geschlechtsreife vorzugsweise mit einer Wirkung der astralischen und ätherischen Organisation, aber ausgehend vom rhythmischen System. Nach der Geschlechtsreife haben wir es zu tun mit dem Vorherrschen der physischen Organisation und der ätherischen Organisation, ausgehend vom Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem. Und wir sehen, wie die Pathologie das durchaus bestätigt. Ich brauche nur die typischen Krankheiten anzuführen für das weibliche Geschlecht; wir sehen, wie die eigentlichen Stoffwechselkrankheiten eben nach der Geschlechtsreife aus dem Inneren des Menschen hervorkommen, so daß wir jetzt sagen können: Es prädominiert der Stoffwechsel. Es ist das, was vom Stoffwechsel aus besiegt die Nerven-Sinnesorganisation, statt sich mit ihr in einen richtigen Einklang zu stellen. Nehmen wir also das Kind vor dem Zahnwechsel, so haben wir ein falsches Vorherrschen des Nerven-Sinnessystems, wenn wir Kinderkrankheiten haben, dann die gesunde Epoche zwischen dem Zahnwechsel und der Geschlechtsreife, nach der Geschlechtsreife: Vorherrschen des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenorganismus mit seinem schnelleren Rhythmus. Dieser schnellere Rhythmus drückt sich dann aus in alledem, was eben zusammenhängt mit Ablagerungen des Stoffwechsels, die sich einfach dadurch bilden, daß ihnen nicht in der richtigen Weise die plastische Organisation von seiten des Kopfes entgegenkommt, daß sich also gewissermaßen dasjenige, was vom Stoffwechsel ausgeht, unter allen Umständen vordrängt.
Es tut mir außerordentlich leid, daß ich diese Dinge nur kursorisch, aphoristisch darlegen kann. Aber, was ich möchte, das ist, daß wenigstens die Zielgedanken angegeben werden, daß man tatsächlich daraus sieht, daß das Funktionelle im Menschen als das Primäre anzusehen ist, und daß im Grunde Formationen und Deformationen hervorgeholt werden müssen aus diesem Funktionellen. Außerlich drückt sich das dadurch aus, daß die plastische Gestaltung im Kinde bis zum siebenten Jahre besonders stark wirkt. Die Organe werden so weit in ihrer Plastik gebildet vom Nerven-Sinnessystem aus, daß wir zum Beispiele sagen können: Dasjenige, was an der Zahnplastik geleistet wird bis zum Zahnwechsel, das wiederholt sich dann überhaupt nicht mehr. Dagegen kommt alles dasjenige, was an Durchdringen des Organismus vom Stoffwechsel aus geleistet wird, eigentlich erst in ein völlig neues Geleise, wenn mit der Geschlechtsreife dasjenige eintritt, daß ein Teil des Stoffwechsels eben abgegeben wird an die Geschlechtsorgane und dadurch der Stoffwechsel überhaupt in eine ganz andere Konstitution hineingebracht wird.
Es ist nun außerordentlich wichtig, diese Dinge, die ich jetzt nur so andeutungsweise erwähnt habe, in bezug auf alle Einzelheiten methodisch zu verfolgen, und man wird dann dasjenige, was sich auf diese Weise ergibt, in eine wirkliche wissenschaftliche Ordnung hineinbringen, wenn man es zusammenfaßt mit solchen Dingen, wie ich sie am Schlusse der Stunde von heute morgen angegeben habe, wenn man es wiederum bezieht auf das Weltwirken außerhalb des Menschen.
All demjenigen, was in dieser komplizierten Weise, wie ich es angedeutet habe, ausstrahlt vom Nierensystem, vom Lebersystem, kann man nun beikommen, indem man einfach Veränderungen darinnen hervorruft von außen. Man kann ihm beikommen dadurch, daß man sich hält an dasjenige, was man an der Pflanze beobachten kann in dem, ich möchte sagen, mehr aus dem Vorjahre oder den vorigen Jahren stammenden Wachstumsprinzipe und den aus der unmittelbaren Gegenwart stammenden Wachstumsprinzipien. Kehren wir noch einmal zur Pflanze zurück. Da haben wir an der Wurzel und bis hinauf zum Fruchtknoten, bis zur Samenbildung herauf, eigentlich ein für die Pflanze Altes, ein Vorjähriges. Und in dem, was sich namentlich um die Blumenblätter herum ausbildet, haben wir dasjenige, was gegenwärtig ist. Ein Zusammenwirken des Gegenwärtigen mit dem Vergangenen haben wir zu sehen in der Bildung der grünen Laubblätter. Vergangenes und Gegenwärtiges sind da eigentlich als zwei Komponenten zu einer Resultierenden vereinigt. Nun ist in der Natur alles so, daß es sich aufeinander bezieht, wie sich ja im menschlichen Organismus in der komplizierten Weise, wie ich es angedeutet habe, auch alles aufeinander bezieht. Nur muß man die Wege der Beziehungen kennenlernen. Es ist in der Natur alles in gegenseitiger Beziehung, und wenn wir diese Beziehungen, die sich da an der Pflanze zeigen, ich möchte sagen, in einer einfacheren Schematik verfolgen wollen, dann finden wir das Folgende: Wir finden alles das, was man in einer älteren, instinktiven Medizin — die wir durchaus nicht erneuern wollen, ich möchte sie nur erwähnen, damit wir uns besser verstehen können — das Phosphor-, das Sulphurartige genannt hat, in demjenigen, was sich ausbildet als das Heurige, als das Diesjährige in der Blüte, ausgeschlossen den Fruchtknoten mit der Narbe. So daß man, wenn man aus diesen Pflanzenteilen, aus diesen Organen einen Tee bereitet, also auch das mineralisch Wirksame herausnimmt, das Phosphor-, das Sulphurartige erhält. Es ist ganz falsch, wenn man glaubt, daß die älteren Mediziner unter Phosphor und Schwefel dasjenige verstanden haben, was man heute in der Chemie darunter versteht, sondern es ist dasjenige darunter verstanden, was ich jetzt eben gekennzeichnet habe. Und ein Tee, der zum Beispiel aus roten Mohnblättern entsprechend bereitet ist, wäre im Sinne der älteren Medizin ein Phosphor-, ein Sulphurartiges.
Dagegen, wenn ich in einer gewissen Weise die grünen Laubblätter zubereite — wenn Sie Fichtennadeln nehmen, ist das natürlich etwas wesentlich anderes, als wenn Sie Kohlblätter nehmen und daraus einen Absud machen —, dann bekommen Sie dasjenige, was im alten Stile als das Merkurialische bezeichnet wurde. Das ist das Merkurialische, nicht das Quecksilber in unserem Sinn.
Und alles dasjenige, was mit dem Wurzelhaften, mit dem Stamm-, mit dem Samenhaften zusammenhängt, ist für die ältere Medizin das Salzartige gewesen. Diese Dinge sage ich nur zur Verdeutlichung. Wir können heute mit unserer naturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis nicht an die alten Erkenntnisse anknüpfen, aber wir müssen dennoch Versuchsreihen haben, die uns zeigen, wie auf der einen Seite, sagen wir, ein Absud aus irgendeiner Pflanzenwurzel auf die Kopforganisation, folglich auch auf die Kinderkrankheiten wirkt.
Wir werden ein ungeheuer bedeutsames regulatives Prinzip haben, wenn wir einfach Versuche anstellen über die Wirkung desjenigen, was wir herausbekommen aus namentlich dem Wurzelartigen, auch dem Samenartigen der Pflanze auf die kindliche Organisation bis zum Zahnwechsel. Wir bekommen dann für alles dasjenige, was ähnlich ist dem, was eben von außen akquiriert werden muß — im Grunde genommen müssen alle Krankheiten, die in der Hauptsache zwischen dem Zahnwechsel und der Geschlechtsreife erworben werden, von außen akquiriert werden —, Heilmittel, also wenigstens Mittel, die wirken auf das von außen Kommende, indem wir uns Präparate bereiten aus dem Laubartigen, aus dem Blätterartigen. Das ist das Merkurialische im älteren Sinn, das uns tatsächlich verstärkt vorliegt in dem Merkurius, in dem Quecksilber, aber nicht identisch ist damit. Daß das Quecksilber ein Spezifikum, ein Heilmittel ist für ausgesprochen äußerlich Akquiriertes, also für gewisse Geschlechtskrankheiten, das hängt durchaus damit zusammen. Alles, was als Geschlechtskrankheiten auftritt, ist im Grunde genommen nur die potenzierte Fortsetzung von Erkrankungen, die in der zweiten Lebensepoche in einer außerordentlich milden Form auftreten können. Aber der Art nach sind selbst die Geschlechtskrankheiten nur eine potenzierte Form desjenigen, was von außen akquiriert werden kann vom siebenten bis zum vierzehnten Jahre, gerade bis zur Geschlechtsreife hin. Es werden keine Geschlechtskrankheiten daraus, weil der Mensch bis zu diesem Alter eben noch nicht geschlechtsreif ist. Sonst würde sich gar manches, was an Krankheiten erworben werden kann, gar sehr auf die Geschlechtsorgane abladen. Und derjenige, der nun wirklich beobachten kann diesen Übergang vom elften, zwölften, dreizehnten in das vierzehnte bis zum fünfzehnten, sechzehnten Jahr, der sieht, wie sich in diesem Lebensalter dasjenige, was früher in einer ganz anderen Weise auftritt, in Abnormitäten des Geschlechtslebens ausprägt. Und dann kommen eben diejenigen Krankheiten des Menschen, die ihren hauptsächlichsten Sitz im Stoffwechsel haben können, insofern der Stoffwechsel gebunden ist an das physische System des Menschen und an das ätherische System des Menschen, und die im Zusammenhang betrachtet werden müssen mit denjenigen Wirkungen, welche gebunden sind an dasjenige, was in dem eigentlichen Blütenhaften der Pflanze drinnen ist.
Wenn man diese Dinge in der skizzenhaften Art hinstellt, wie ich es leider tun mußte, so kann einem vieles phantastisch erscheinen. Aber die Dinge sind alle in ihren Einzelheiten verifizierbar, und dasjenige, was da zugrunde liegt an Schwierigkeiten, mit diesen Dingen heute wirklich heranzukommen an die offizielle Medizin, ist eben das, daß es zunächst scheinbar unübersehlich ist, was uns da auftritt, weil wir ja überall mit solchen Komplikationen im menschlichen Organismus rechnen müssen, wie diejenige ist, die Ihnen ganz besonders aufgefallen sein wird, als ich heute zu sprechen angefangen habe und so charakterisieren mußte, daß es scheinbar gar nicht stimmte mit dem, was ich vormittags gesagt habe. Das aber klärt sich dadurch auf, daß wir sehen, daß dasjenige, was von der LeberNierenorganisation ausgeht, eben zuerst in seinen Gegenwirkungen auftritt und dann darstellt etwas, was eben dann wesentlich ist für den Ich-Organismus und für den astralischen Organismus des Menschen. Das tritt da ganz besonders stark auf. Aber in einer ähnlichen Weise ist auch ein unmittelbares Zusammenwirken und Gegeneinanderwirken zwischen dem Blutkreislaufrhythmus und dem Atmungsrhythmus im mittleren Menschen vorhanden, so daß auch da manches gesucht werden muß, was vom Blutrhythmus ausgeht erst in dem Gegenschlag des Atmungsrhythmus und umgekehrt.
Wenn Sie dasjenige, was ich nun gesagt habe, verbinden damit, daß zum Beispiel die Ich-Organisation des Menschen eigentlich lebt im Wärmemenschen, wie ich heute vormittag sagte, und der Wärmemensch durchdringt dann den Luftmenschen, den gasigen Menschen, und wenn wir eine solche Wirkung haben wie diejenige, welche vom Ich-Organismus und vom astralischen Organismus ausgeht, so haben wir darinnen physisch angesehen etwas, was vorzugsweise herauswirkt aus der Wärmeorganisation und aus der gasigen, aus der luftförmigen Organisation. Das haben wir aber in dem frühen kindlichen Organismus zu sehen. Wir haben also zu sehen den Ursprung der Kinderkrankheiten durch ein Studium der Wärmeorganisation und Luftorganisation des Menschen. Und die Wirkungen, die nun auftreten, wenn wir herankommen an die Wärmeorganisation und an die Luftorganisation mit den Präparaten, die wir bereiten aus Wurzeln oder Samen, diese Wirkungen rühren daher, daß zwei polare Wirkungsweisen aufeinanderstoßen, wovon die eine die andere erregt. Dasjenige, was wir hineinbringen in den Organismus, was entsteht aus der Samenorganisation und der Wurzelorganisation, erregt eben alles dasjenige, was aus der Wärmeorganisation und aus der Luftorganisation des Menschen hervorkommt. Und damit wollte ich Ihnen nur andeuten, wie wir auf der einen Seite, wenn wir die Wirkungen betrachten, die von oben nach unten gewissermaßen verlaufen, von vornherein im Menschen veranlagt haben eine WärmeLuftvibration, die in der Kindheit am stärksten ist, obwohl es nicht eine Vibration ist, sondern eine zeitlich verlaufende organische Struktur. Und dasjenige, was wieder im physisch-ätherischen Organismus des Menschen von unten nach oben verlaufend ist, das ist dann die feste und die flüssige Organisation des Menschen. Beide stehen miteinander dadurch in Wechselwirkung, daß gewissermaßen die flüssige und die gasförmige Organisation sich in der Mitte durchdringen und ebenso eine Zwischenstufe der Aggregatzustände hervorrufen, wie die Ihnen bekannte Zwischenstufe der Aggregatzustände zwischen dem Festen und Flüssigen im menschlichen Organismus vorhanden ist durch das Durchdringen. Ebenso aber müssen wir suchen im menschlichen lebenden und empfindenden Organismus eine Zwischenstufe zwischen dem Flüssigen und zwischen dem Gasförmigen und wiederum eine Zwischenstufe zwischen dem Gasförmigen und dem Wärmehaften.
Und sehen Sie, alles dasjenige, was sich, ich möchte sagen, auf diese Art physiologisch ausdrückt, das hat seine Bedeutung für die Pathologie und die Therapie. Nicht wahr, indem wir hinschauen auf den Menschen, der in dieser Weise kompliziert organisiert ist, ist das der Fall, daß ein Organsystem in das andere Organsystem fortwährend seine Wirkungen hineinergießt. Wenn Sie nun die ganze organische Wirkung betrachten, die sich zum Beispiel in einem Sinnesorgan, sagen wir vorzugsweise im Ohre, ausdrückt, so haben Sie das Folgende: Ich-Organisation, astralische Organisation, ätherische, physische Organisation wirken in einer gewissen Weise zusammen, so daß der Stoffwechsel durchdringt das Nerven-Sinneswesen, daß das durchrhythmisiert wird von dem Atmungsvorgange, insofern er in das Gehörorgan hineinwirkt, durchorganisiert, durchrhythmisiert wird vom Blutrhythmus, insofern er in das Gehörorgan hineingeht. In jedem einzelnen Organe drückt sich in einem gewissen Verhältnis dasjenige aus, was ich in einer verschiedenen Weise drei-, vierfach — durch den dreigliedrigen Menschen, durch die vierfache Organisation, wie ich sie angeführt habe — versuchte, Ihnen auf diese Weise durchsichtig zu machen. Aber schließlich ist beim Menschen alles in Metamorphose. Was zum Beispiel hier in der Ohrgegend normal auftritt — warum nennen wir es normal? Weil es in der Weise auftritt, wie es eben auftritt, damit der Mensch zustande kommt, und so zustande kommt, wie er auf der Erde herumläuft. Es gibt keinen anderen Grund, daß wir das normal nennen. Wenn aber diese besonderen Verhältnisse, die da im Ohre namentlich gestaltend wirken durch die Lage des Ohres, namentlich dadurch, daß das Ohr an der Peripherie des Organismus ist, so wirken, daß, sagen wir, an irgendeiner Stelle im Inneren des Organismus durch Metamorphose ein ähnliches Verhältnis, ein ähnliches Wechselverhältnis zu all diesen Gliederungen entsteht, statt des Wechselverhältnisses, das dort an jener Stelle gerade das angemessene ist, dann gliedert sich an dieser Stelle etwas ein, was eigentlich ein Ohr werden will; verzeihen Sie mir die skizzenhafte Andeutung, aber man kann nicht anders sagen, was ich sagen will, wenn man es skizzenhaft sagen muß. Es gliedert sich zum Beispiel in der Gegend des Magenpförtners ein, statt desjenigen, was dort entstehen sollte. Sie haben auf diese Weise durch eine pathologische Metamorphose den Ursprung der Geschwulstbildung zu sehen. In der Tat sind alle Geschwulstbildungen bis zum Karzinom deplazierte Versuche von Sinnesorganbildungen, und wenn Sie daher eine solche pathologische Bildung haben, und Sie durchschauen in der richtigen Weise den menschlichen Organismus, dann finden Sie, welchen Anteil in der kindlichen Organisation, schon in der embryonalen Organisation, der Wärmeorganismus und der Luftorganismus haben, um diese Organe zustande zu bringen. Diese Organe können nämlich durch den Wärme- und Luftorganismus nur dadurch in der richtigen Weise zustande kommen, daß ihnen der flüssige Organismus und der feste Organismus entgegenwirken, und daß da eine Resultierende aus Komponenten entsteht. Das heißt, es ist notwendig, daß wir auf dieses Verhältnis hinschauen, in dem der physische Organismus, insofern er sich zum Beispiel durch den Stoffwechsel zum Ausdruck bringt, zu dem plastizierenden Organismus, insofern er sich im Nerven-Sinnessystem zum Ausdruck bringt, steht. Wir müssen gewissermaßen sehen, wie ausstrahlt aus dem Stoffwechselorganismus dasjenige, was den Stoff eben radial trägt, und wie dann der Stoff plastisch geformt wird in den Organen durch dasjenige, was eben das Nerven-Sinnessystem entgegenträgt.
Wenn wir das ins Auge fassen, dann sagen wir uns, auf welche Weise wir an eine Geschwulstbildung wirklich herankommen können. Wir können an eine Geschwulstbildung nur dadurch herankommen, daß wir uns sagen, es ist ein falsches Verhältnis zwischen dem physisch-ätherischen Organismus einerseits, insofern er sich in dem ausstrahlenden Stoffwechsel ausdrückt, und zwischen dem IchOrganismus und dem astralischen Organismus andererseits, indem sie sich ausdrücken in dem Wärmeorganismus und in dem Luftorganismus. Wir haben also vor allen Dingen, wenn wir die äußersten Grenzen nennen, das Verhältnis des Stoffwechsels zur Wärmeorganisation des Menschen ins Auge zu fassen, und wir erreichen das am besten gegenüber einer Geschwulst, namentlich wenn sie im Innern sitzt, aber auch im Äußeren ist das möglich — ich werde dann morgen namentlich im therapeutischen Teil über diese Dinge sprechen — dadurch, daß wir die Geschwulst umhüllen mit einem Wärmemantel. Es muß uns nur gelingen, die Geschwulst zu umhüllen mit einem Wärmemantel. Der ruft eine radikale Umänderung der ganzen Organisation hervor. Gelingt es uns, die Geschwulst zu umgeben mit einem Wärmemantel, dann — primitiv gesprochen — gelingt es uns auch, sie aufzulösen. Das wird eben in Wirklichkeit erreicht, wenn in ganz entsprechender Weise solche Mittel angewandt werden, wie sie Ihnen von unseren ärztlichen Freunden gewiß angegeben worden sind, wenn solche Mittel durch Injektion zur Wirkung gebracht werden im menschlichen Organismus. Hat man gerade die spezifische Wirkung herausbekommen auf das eine oder andere Organsystem, dann kann man sicher sein, daß in jedem Fall durch ein Viscumpräparat, wie wir es anwenden, um das betreffende abnorme Organ — denn ein solches ist zum Beispiel das betreffende Karzinom — ein Wärmemantel gebildet wird. Man kann nicht dasselbe anwenden bei einem Brustkarzinom, bei einem Uteruskarzinom, bei einem Pförtnerkarzinom. Man muß studieren, welchen Weg dasjenige nimmt, was man durch die Injektion hervorruft, aber Sie erreichen niemals etwas, wenn Sie nicht eine wirkliche Wirkung zustande bringen. Und diese Wirkung drückt sich aus dadurch, daß Fieber zustande kommt. Es muß also die Injektion gefolgt sein von einem Fieberzustande. Sie können von vornherein mit einem Mißerfolg rechnen, wenn Sie nicht Fieberzustände hervorrufen.
Ich wollte das im Prinzip anführen, damit Sie sehen, wie auf einer Ratio diese Dinge beruhen, aber die Ratio soll nur regulatives Prinzip sein. Sie werden sehen, daß dasjenige, was durch diese regulativen Prinzipien behauptet wird, verifiziert werden kann auf die Weise, wie überhaupt solche Tatbestände nach den Gewohnheiten der heutigen Medizin verifiziert werden. Wir wollen auch gar keinen Anspruch darauf erheben, daß diese Dinge irgendwie als Behauptungen hingenommen werden sollen, bevor die Verifizierung da ist. Aber die Sache liegt doch so, daß derjenige, der heute sich diese Sachen wirklich angelegen sein läßt, merkwürdige Entdeckungen machen kann.
Alles dasjenige, was ich Ihnen heute darstellte — wenn auch die skizzenhafte Darstellung etwas verwirrend sein mag, aber es wird schon klar, wenn Sie nur auf die Sache eingehen —, werden Sie auf einer Seite in einer merkwürdigen Weise belegt finden, wenn Sie nur die richtigen Tatsachen auf der einen Seite nehmen, die in der Literatur verzeichnet sind — irgendwo sind diese Dinge verzeichnet, die Sie tatsächlich schon in die Nähe des heute dargestellten Bildes bringen können —, namentlich wenn Sie das in Zusammenhang tun mit etwas anderem, wenn Sie das in Zusammenhang bringen mit den zahlreichen Bemerkungen, die Sie in der Literatur finden: Bis hierher kommt man, aber dann nicht weiter.
Sie werden also von zwei Seiten her aus der schon bestehenden Medizin durchaus das bestätigt finden, daß sich dasjenige ergibt, was ich heute skizzenhaft angedeutet habe. Ich werde nun mir erlauben, morgen einiges Therapeutische hinzuzufügen, dann wird sich manches von dem, was heute vielleicht durch die skizzenhafte Art der Darstellung nicht ganz klar wurde, schon weiter aufklären.
Third Lecture
If we continue to make progress in viewing the human organism in the way I have, to my regret, only been able to hint at, then certain things that are not otherwise properly seen in their full significance will become important, particularly for the assessment of healthy and sick people. Today, for example, very little attention is paid to what I have attempted to call the threefold structure of the human physical being in the appendix to my book “Von Seelenrätseln” (The Mystery of the Soul). Nevertheless, a great deal depends on the correct assessment of this threefold structure of the physical human being, both in terms of the pathological element and the therapeutic element.
This threefold division of the physical human being is meant to indicate that everything that is part of the nervous-sensory system must be regarded as being located primarily in the head, but that this head organization is of course spread throughout the whole human being, so that, for example, everything that must be designated as a nervous-sensory function in the human skin, but also within the human organization, definitely belongs to it. Only with reference to the modes of action in the human organism can one arrive at a well-founded view, if one does not first theoretically isolate the nerve-sense system from the rest of the organism.
As a second system, I then distinguished the rhythmic system of the human being, which encompasses everything in terms of function that is subject to a rhythm, i.e., primarily the respiratory system in connection with the blood circulation system, and then, in a broader sense, the rhythm that applies at least essentially to humans, even if humans can break it in many ways, such as the day-night rhythm, the rhythm of sleeping and waking, and everything else that is rhythmic, including the rhythm of food intake and so on. The latter things are indeed disrupted by humans, but the result of this disruption must in turn be balanced in a certain way by regulators found in the organism. So we must regard the rhythmic human being as the second member of the human organism, and the metabolic organism as the third member, to which I also count the limb organism, because what takes place functionally through the movement of the limbs is closely connected with metabolism in general.
If we take this threefold division of the human being, we come to the conclusion that what I have described this morning as the organization of the human being, which is primarily connected with the ego, has a certain relationship to the metabolic human being, but only insofar as this metabolic human being extends over the whole human being. And again, the rhythmic human being has a certain relationship to what I described this morning as the heart-lung system. And again, what I described this morning as kidney function, originating in the kidney system, has a certain relationship to what I described this morning as the astral organization of the human being. In short, the threefold human being has a certain relationship to the individual elements of the supersensible human nature and thus also to the individual organ systems, as I explained this morning. But we must now examine the relationships in more detail if they are to have any real value for understanding healthy and sick human beings, and it is probably best to start with the rhythmic human being, with the rhythmic organization of the human being.
It is precisely this rhythmic organization of the human being that is very often not properly appreciated in relation to a very specific characteristic, namely the relationship that emerges between the rhythm of blood circulation and the rhythm of breathing. In adults, this ratio is almost four to one. This is, of course, only an approximate, average ratio, and it is precisely in the way this whole ratio is specialized for each individual human being that something of the degree of health and illness in the human organism is expressed. And what appears to us in this rhythmic human being as a ratio of four to one actually continues throughout the entire human being. And we have — we can verify this, as I said this morning for other things, through a series of sensory-empirical facts — a ratio of four to one with regard to the development of the metabolic human being, to which the limb human being then belongs — I say the metabolic human being for the sake of simplicity — to the nerve-sense human being. This ratio goes so far that we can actually say: Everything connected with the human metabolism takes place in its processes at about four times the speed of everything that follows from the nerve-sense organization for the growth of the human being. We can say quite literally that the second teething of the child, the emergence of the child's second teeth, is an expression of what is happening in the human metabolic system, in a sense because this metabolic system of the human being is constantly interacting with the nerve-sense system, but that everything that then continues from the human metabolic system to the middle, rhythmic system, to what continues from the nerve-sense system into the rhythmic system, is related in tempo as four to one. To be precise, we can see the rhythmic continuation of the nervous-sensory system in the respiratory system, and we can see the rhythmic continuation of the metabolic system in the circulatory system. We can say that the metabolic system sends its effects up into the rhythmic human being, that is, the third member of the human organization into the second member, which is expressed by the rhythm of blood circulation in daily life. The nervous-sensory system sends its effects into the respiratory system, and this is expressed through the rhythm of breathing. So that in the rhythmic human being, in whom we can observe the ratio of four to one — seventy-odd heartbeats to eighteen breaths — in a sense, the collision of the nerve-sense system and the metabolic system in the relationship of the rhythms, and this, as I said, we can still observe in any period of human life when we consider the relationship of everything that comes from the metabolism in human processes in its collision with what comes from the head system, from the nerve-sense system. This is an extremely important relationship. And we can say quite simply: in the second teething of the child, we have a surge of the metabolic system up into the head, but in such a way that when the metabolic system encounters the nervous-sensory system, the nervous-sensory system initially predominates.This will become clear to you from the following discussions. We can therefore say that when the child gets its second teeth around the age of seven, there is a collision between the metabolic system and the nervous-sensory system, but in such a way that the effect of the nervous-sensory system predominates, and the resultant of this collision — in a sense, these are the components that emanate from the nervous-sensory system and the metabolic system — the resultant is what then leads to the development of the second teeth.
Again, in the period of life that brings sexual maturity, we have a renewed clash between the metabolic system and the nervous-sensory system. But now the metabolic system predominates, which is expressed, for example, in the male sex by the fact that even the voice, which until this age was essentially a form of expression of the nervous-sensory system, changes as a result of the metabolic system, as it were, striking up and making the voice more muffled. We can understand these effects by observing how much of them is due, on the one hand, to the radiations in the human organism that originate in the kidney system and the liver-gall system, as indicated today, and, on the other hand, to those that originate in the head and skin organization, i.e., in what underlies the nervous-sensory system. This is an extremely interesting relationship, something that, one might say, leads into the deepest depths of the human organism. It is such that one can imagine the formation, the shaping of the organism, in such a way that emanations take place from, let us say, the kidney-liver system, which are met by the plastic impressions of the head system. And if one wants to draw a schematic representation of what is happening there, one would have to draw it like this (it is drawn). One would have to say: such radiations take place from the liver-kidney system — not only upwards, of course, but in all directions — these radiations tend to have a semi-radial effect, but they are blunted everywhere by the plastic formations that encounter them from the head system. So we understand the shape of the lungs by thinking of their form as being sculpted by the liver-kidney system, but countered by those components that round them off, coming from the head system. The whole of human formation comes about because we think of it as a radial formation coming from the kidney-liver system, rounded off by the radial formation coming from the head system.
In this way, we arrive at the extraordinarily important fact, which can be empirically proven in all its details, that two force components are at work in human organization, namely in human growth: the force components that originate from the liver-kidney system, and the force components that round off the forms they shape, that give them their surface, these components that originate from the nerve-sense system. Both components collide with each other, but they do not collide in the same rhythm; they collide in different rhythms. Everything that originates from the liver-kidney system has the rhythm of the metabolic human being. And everything that originates from the head system has the rhythm of the nervous-sensory human being. This means that when a person is ready, through their organization, to get their second teeth around the age of seven, then in their metabolic organization, in everything that originates from the kidney-liver system and is, so to speak, driven by the rhythm of the heart, they are subject to a rhythm that is four to one in relation to the other rhythm that comes from the head. So that in terms of the organization of the head, the human being is only at the stage at the age of twenty-eight that he was at the age of seven in terms of his metabolic organization. This means that the plastic principle in the human being progresses more slowly than the radiating, non-plastic principle. The plastic principle progresses four times as slowly. This is related to the fact that, in terms of what comes from our metabolism, we are at the end of the seventh year about as far along as we are in terms of our overall growth ratio, insofar as it is subject to the nerve-sense system, only at the age of twenty-eight. So in this way, the human being is a complex being, in that there are actually two currents, two currents of movement, at work within him, which are subject to completely different rhythms. And so we can say, for example, that this second set of teeth arises because what is connected with the metabolism initially encounters the slower but more intense plastic principle, so that in the teething process we have a preponderance of the plastic element. In the period of sexual maturity, we have a predominance of the metabolic element; the plastic element withdraws, so to speak, which is expressed in the male sex by the well-known phenomenon.
But other things are connected with this in the human organism. All of this is connected with the fact that the greatest possibility for humans to become ill actually occurs during the period of life up to the second teething, and indeed in such a way that the greatest possibility of becoming ill is there in the very first epoch of life. Then, with the second teething, the inner predisposition of humans to illness actually ceases to a large extent. Studying this relationship in detail was actually imposed on me by our pedagogy, which we had to train in. For it is impossible to establish a rational pedagogy without these foundations concerning healthy and sick human beings. Human beings are actually at their healthiest in the second phase of life, from the change of teeth to sexual maturity, due to their inner nature. Then a new phase begins, in which they are prone to illness. However, becoming ill in the first phase of life, up to the change of teeth, is fundamentally different from becoming ill after puberty. These two possibilities of becoming ill are as different, I would say, as the growth of second teeth is different from the change of voice in boys. This is because during the first phase of life, up to the change of teeth, everything in the child emanates from the nerve-sense organization to the outermost peripheries of the human organism. Everything actually emanates from the nerve-sense organization. The nerve-sense organization, which still predominates during the change of teeth, is also the source of the pathological phenomena in the first phase of human life. And you will arrive at a complete judgment, if I may express myself thus, about these pathological phenomena when you look at the matter in this way, when you say to yourself: It is quite clear that what radiates from the kidney-liver system becomes dulled, so to speak, plastically dulled by the plasticizing principle of the nerve-sense human being, and in this plasticizing element of the nerve-sense human being, what I have described in these lectures as connected with the ego organization of the human being and with the astral organization of the human being now has a predominant effect.
You see, it is strange that I used to have to say that the ego organization emanates from the liver-gallbladder system, that the astral organization emanates from the kidney system, and that I now have to say: Everything connected with the ego organization and the astral organization comes from the head organization. For one can never come to terms with the human organization in its immense complexity if one describes things in such a straightforward manner, saying: the ego organization originates from the liver-gallbladder system, the astral organization originates from the liver-kidney system, and leaving it at that. One must be clear that in the first phase of human life, up to the change of teeth, these radiations from the liver and kidney systems are dulled by the nerve-sense system, and that this dulling is the essential thing, that what comes from the liver-bile system and the kidney system for the ego and the astral organization of the human being curiously manifests itself as a counter-radiation, not in its direct path from below to above, but it manifests itself from above to below in its counter-radiation. And we actually have the whole childish organization in such a way that we have to imagine: the astral radiates from the kidney system, the ego organization radiates from the liver system, but these radiations have no meaning; rather, the liver system is reflected, as it were, by the head system, the kidney system is reflected by the head system, and only the reflection into the organism appears as the effective principle. So you have to ask yourself: How do I view the astral organization in the child? — I view the astral organization in the child by looking at the effects of the kidneys, but in their reflection from the head system. How do I view the ego organization in the child? — In such a way that I view the liver and gallbladder functions, but in their reflection from the head system. And the actual physical system and the etheric system, which work from below upwards, the physical organization with its starting point in the digestive system, and the etheric organization from the heart and lung system. These work from below upwards and the others from above downwards during the first phase of human life; and the rhythm that relates to that radiation from above downwards as four to one works into the radiation from below upwards.
It is a pity that I have to mention this so briefly, but what I am now hinting at actually provides insight into the processes of childhood. So that if you want to study the most conspicuous childhood diseases, you can divide them into two groups, and you will find the following: if you study the most conspicuous childhood diseases, you will find that on the one hand they are based on the fact that what radiates from below to above is met by what radiates from above to below with a rhythm of four to one, but that this does not lead to a balance. And if that which has the rhythm of four, that which still radiates from below to above, does not want to integrate itself into the human individuality, while the inherited rhythm of the head organization with one is actually in order, then all those diseases arise which we have in the child's organism, and which are nevertheless metabolic diseases, but metabolic diseases that arise from a congestion against the nerve-sensory system, so that the metabolism cannot adapt in the appropriate way to what radiates from the nerve-sensory system, and we get, for example — I can only give examples — that strange blood disease in children that leads to a kind of purulent blood. We also get all the other childhood diseases in this way, which we can describe as metabolic diseases. If, on the other hand, the metabolic organism is adapted to the child's individuality, if the hygienic conditions are reasonable, so that the child is properly adapted to its environment, that is, if it is given proper food, but if, due to some hereditary conditions, the nerve-sensory system, which works from top to bottom and whose effects are carried along by the radiations of the liver-bile system and the kidney system, then all the convulsive childhood diseases arise, which we must say are based on the fact that the ego organization and the astral organization cannot properly enter into the physical and etheric organization.
The diseases of the child's organism thus arise from two opposite sides. But it is always the case that we can only deal with these diseases of the child's organism by directing our attention to the head and the nerve-sense organization. For, basically, we must also shape the child's metabolism in such a way that it adapts not only to external conditions, but also to the nerve-sense organization. In this first stage of human life, up to the change of teeth, it is necessary that we develop a thorough understanding of the human nervous and sensory system, a practical understanding, and that we really see that in the child everything radiates from the head organization, only the metabolism can come to the fore because it is in order and the head organization could be too weak due to hereditary conditions.
When the second phase of human life begins, from the change of teeth to sexual maturity, it is the rhythmic organism from which everything radiates. The astral and etheric organizations of the human being are essentially active in this process. Between the change of teeth and sexual maturity, everything that the respiratory and circulatory systems perform in their functions radiates into the astral and etheric organizations of the human being. Because these systems can actually be kept in order from the outside, human beings are at their healthiest at this age through their own organization. We can actually ruin the health of schoolchildren of compulsory elementary school age if we expose them to poor hygienic and sanitary conditions, whereas in the first phase of life we cannot really take care of them in the same way from the outside. This is what imposes such an enormous responsibility on the medical part of education, that one can know quite precisely from a real knowledge of human beings: you are basically responsible for the causes of illness that essentially occur between the ages of seven and fourteen. So, especially at the age of compulsory elementary school, the human being is not really dependent on himself, but adapts to his environment in his breathing, precisely through the inhalation of air and through what is expressed by the metabolism in his circulation. Metabolism is always related to the organization of the limbs. If children are not allowed to exercise properly, if they are not allowed to move properly, external causes of illness are bred. This is the basis for the study of truly proper elementary school education. All conditions, including teaching conditions, must be arranged in such a way that this is taken into account.
You see, our time does not do this. You can see this from the following: in so-called experimental psychology, which in a certain respect is something magnificent — I can already appreciate its significance —, among other sins, for example, the sin is committed of saying: when the child has these lessons, it tires itself out like this, and when the child has other lessons, it tires itself out like that — and so on. And from this, one concludes how the curriculum should be designed, based on the fatigue levels that are determined in this way. Yes, the question is completely wrong; the question must be asked differently. From the age of seven to fourteen, thank God, we are only dealing with the rhythmic human being, who in principle does not tire at all. For if he did tire, our heart, for example, would not be able to carry out its movements when we sleep, throughout our entire earthly lifetime. Likewise, our breathing movements are carried out without fatigue. So if someone says that they must take into account what is expressed as great or little fatigue in the experiment, they would have to conclude that they have actually done something wrong if that happens. Our ideal must be, between the ages of seven and fourteen, not to work primarily on the head system at all, but on the rhythmic system. We do this when we shape our education artistically. There we work on the rhythmic system, and there we will see that we are correcting what is being researched today as fatigue conditions resulting from incorrect teaching. For example, even if it is only in a subtle way, incorrect strain on the memory can influence the breathing movements, the effects of which only become apparent later in life. When the child reaches sexual maturity and afterwards, the opposite is true. What then occurs is what I would call the causes of illness in the human being himself, namely in his own metabolism-limb organism, caused by the fact that the substances he takes in as food assert their own laws, and here we are dealing with a predominant effect of the physical and etheric organism in relation to the human organization.
So that in the child's organism, via the nervous-sensory system, we are dealing with the ego organization and the astral organization; in the period from the change of teeth to sexual maturity, preferably with an effect of the astral and etheric organization, but starting from the rhythmic system. After puberty, we are dealing with the predominance of the physical organization and the etheric organization, starting from the metabolic-limb system. And we see how pathology confirms this. I need only mention the typical diseases of the female sex; we see how the actual metabolic diseases emerge from within the human being after sexual maturity, so that we can now say: metabolism predominates. It is metabolism that defeats the nerve-sense organization instead of harmonizing with it. If we take the child before the change of teeth, we have a false predominance of the nerve-sense system; if we have childhood diseases, then the healthy epoch between the change of teeth and sexual maturity, after sexual maturity: predominance of the metabolic-limb organism with its faster rhythm. This faster rhythm is then expressed in everything that is connected with metabolic deposits, which are formed simply because they are not met in the right way by the plastic organization of the head, so that, in a sense, what emanates from the metabolism pushes itself forward under all circumstances.
I am extremely sorry that I can only present these things in a cursory, aphoristic manner. But what I would like is for at least the main ideas to be stated, so that it can actually be seen that the functional aspect of the human being is to be regarded as primary, and that formations and deformations must basically be brought out of this functional aspect. Externally, this is expressed in the fact that plastic formation has a particularly strong effect in children up to the age of seven. The organs are formed in their plasticity by the nervous-sensory system to such an extent that we can say, for example, that what is achieved in tooth plasticity up to the change of teeth is never repeated again. On the other hand, everything that is achieved in terms of the metabolism penetrating the organism actually enters a completely new phase when, with sexual maturity, part of the metabolism is transferred to the sexual organs, thereby bringing the metabolism into a completely different constitution.
It is now extremely important to methodically pursue these things, which I have only mentioned in passing, in relation to all the details, and then what emerges in this way can be brought into a real scientific order when it is summarized with such things as I indicated at the end of this morning's lesson, when it is again related to the world's activity outside of the human being.
All that which radiates in this complicated way, as I have indicated, from the kidney system, from the liver system, can now be approached by simply bringing about changes in it from outside. It can be addressed by adhering to what can be observed in the plant in terms of, I would say, the growth principles originating more from the previous year or previous years and the growth principles originating from the immediate present. Let us return once more to the plant. From the root up to the ovary, up to the formation of seeds, we actually have what is old for the plant, what is from the previous year. And in what develops around the petals, we have what is present. We can see the interaction of the present with the past in the formation of the green leaves. The past and the present are actually united as two components to form a resultant. Now, in nature, everything is related to everything else, just as in the human organism, in the complicated way I have indicated, everything is related to everything else. But one must learn to recognize the paths of these relationships. Everything in nature is interrelated, and if we want to follow these relationships, which are evident in plants, in a simpler schematic, we find the following: We find everything that in older, instinctive medicine — which we do not want to revive, I only mention it so that we can understand each other better — was called phosphorus, sulfur, in what develops as the new, as this year's blossom, excluding the ovary with the stigma. So that when you prepare a tea from these parts of the plant, from these organs, you also extract the mineral active ingredients, the phosphorus and sulfur-like substances. It is quite wrong to believe that the older physicians understood phosphorus and sulfur to mean what we understand by these terms in chemistry today; rather, they understood them to mean what I have just described. And a tea prepared in this way from red poppy leaves, for example, would be a phosphorus-like, sulfur-like substance in the sense of older medicine.
On the other hand, if I prepare green leaves in a certain way — if you take spruce needles, that is of course something quite different from taking cabbage leaves and making a decoction from them — then you get what was called mercurial in the old style. That is mercurial, not mercury in our sense of the word.
And everything related to roots, stems, and seeds was considered salty in ancient medicine. I am only saying these things for clarification. With our scientific knowledge today, we cannot build on the old knowledge, but we must nevertheless have series of experiments that show us how, on the one hand, let's say, a decoction from some plant root affects the head organization and, consequently, also childhood diseases.
We will have an enormously significant regulative principle if we simply conduct experiments on the effect of what we extract from the root-like and seed-like parts of the plant on the child's organization up to the change of teeth. We will then obtain remedies for everything that is similar to what must be acquired from outside — basically, all diseases that are mainly acquired between the change of teeth and sexual maturity must be acquired from outside —, that is, at least remedies that act on what comes from outside, by preparing preparations from the foliage-like, from the leaf-like. This is the mercurial in the older sense, which is indeed more strongly present in mercury, but is not identical with it. The fact that mercury is a specific remedy for what is acquired externally, i.e., for certain venereal diseases, is definitely related to this. Everything that occurs as a venereal disease is basically only the potentiated continuation of diseases that can occur in an extremely mild form in the second phase of life. But in terms of their nature, even venereal diseases are only a potentiated form of what can be acquired from outside between the ages of seven and fourteen, right up to sexual maturity. These do not become sexually transmitted diseases because humans are not yet sexually mature at this age. Otherwise, many of the diseases that can be acquired would have a very strong effect on the sexual organs. And anyone who can really observe this transition from the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth to the fourteenth to the fifteenth, sixteenth year, sees how at this age what previously occurred in a completely different way manifests itself in abnormalities of sexual life. And then there are those human diseases that can have their main seat in the metabolism, insofar as the metabolism is bound to the physical system of the human being and to the etheric system of the human being, and which must be considered in connection with those effects that are bound to what is contained in the actual blossom of the plant.
When these things are presented in a sketchy manner, as I unfortunately had to do, much of it may seem fantastical. But all of these things can be verified in detail, and the underlying difficulty in really bringing these things to the attention of official medicine today is precisely that what we are dealing with seems at first glance to be overwhelming, because we have to reckon with such complications in the human organism everywhere, such as the one that will have struck you in particular when I began to speak today and had to characterize it in such a way that it seemed to contradict what I said this morning. But this is clarified by the fact that we see that what emanates from the liver-kidney organization first appears in its counteractions and then represents something that is essential for the ego organism and for the astral organism of the human being. This is particularly strong there. But in a similar way, there is also a direct interaction and counteraction between the blood circulation rhythm and the breathing rhythm in the middle human being, so that here too, some things must be sought that originate from the blood rhythm only in the counteraction of the breathing rhythm and vice versa.
If you connect what I have just said with the fact that, for example, the ego organization of the human being actually lives in the warmth human, as I said this morning, and the heat human then permeates the air human, the gaseous human, and if we have an effect such as that which emanates from the ego organism and the astral organism, then we have something physically visible within it that emanates primarily from the heat organization and from the gaseous, air-like organization. But we see this in the early childhood organism. So we have to see the origin of childhood diseases through a study of the warmth organization and air organization of the human being. And the effects that now occur when we approach the warmth organization and the air organization with the preparations we make from roots or seeds, these effects arise from the fact that two polar modes of action collide, one of which excites the other. What we bring into the organism, what arises from the seed organization and the root organization, stimulates everything that comes from the heat organization and the air organization of the human being. And with this I just wanted to indicate to you how, on the one hand, when we consider the effects that run from top to bottom, so to speak, we have predisposed in the human being from the outset a warmth-air vibration that is strongest in childhood, although it is not a vibration but a temporal organic structure. And what runs from bottom to top in the physical-etheric organism of the human being is the solid and liquid organization of the human being. Both interact with each other in such a way that the liquid and gaseous organizations penetrate each other in the middle and also produce an intermediate stage of the states of aggregation, just as the intermediate stage of the states of aggregation between the solid and liquid in the human organism is present through penetration. But we must also look for an intermediate stage between the liquid and the gaseous in the living and sentient human organism, and again an intermediate stage between the gaseous and the warm.
And you see, everything that is expressed physiologically in this way, I would say, has its significance for pathology and therapy. Isn't it true that when we look at the human being, who is organized in this complex way, one organ system is constantly pouring its effects into another organ system? If you now consider the whole organic effect that is expressed, for example, in a sense organ, let's say preferably in the ear, you have the following: The ego organization, the astral organization, the etheric organization, and the physical organization work together in a certain way, so that the metabolism permeates the nervous-sensory system, which is rhythmicized by the respiratory process insofar as it acts on the hearing organ, and is organized and rhythmicized by the blood rhythm insofar as it enters the hearing organ. In each individual organ, what I have tried to make clear to you in various ways — through the threefold human being, through the fourfold organization, as I have described — is expressed in a certain relationship. But ultimately, everything in the human being is in metamorphosis. What, for example, occurs normally here in the ear region — why do we call it normal? Because it occurs in the way it occurs, so that the human being comes into being, and comes into being in such a way that he or she can walk around on earth. There is no other reason why we call it normal. But if these special conditions, which have a formative effect in the ear due to the position of the ear, namely because the ear is on the periphery of the organism, have the effect that, say, at some point inside the organism, metamorphosis creates a similar relationship a similar interrelationship with all these structures arises instead of the interrelationship that is appropriate at that particular point, then something that actually wants to become an ear integrates itself at this point; forgive me for the sketchy description, but there is no other way to say what I want to say if it has to be said in a sketchy way. For example, it integrates itself in the area of the pylorus instead of what should develop there. In this way, you can see the origin of tumor formation through a pathological metamorphosis. In fact, all tumor formations up to carcinoma are misplaced attempts at sensory organ formation, and if you therefore have such a pathological formation and you understand the human organism in the right way, then you will find what part the warmth organism and the air organism play in the child's organization, even in the embryonic organization, in bringing these organs into being. These organs can only come into being in the right way through the warmth and air organisms if the fluid organism and the solid organism counteract them, and if a resultant force arises from the components. This means that we need to look at the relationship between the physical organism, as expressed, for example, through metabolism, and the plasticizing organism, as expressed in the nervous-sensory system. We must, in a sense, see how that which carries the substance radially radiates out of the metabolic organism, and how the substance is then plastically formed in the organs by that which is counteracted by the nervous-sensory system.
When we consider this, we ask ourselves how we can really approach the formation of a tumor. We can only approach tumor formation by telling ourselves that there is an imbalance between the physical-etheric organism on the one hand, insofar as it expresses itself in the radiating metabolism, and between the ego organism and the astral organism on the other hand, insofar as they express themselves in the warmth organism and in the air organism. So, first and foremost, when we name the outer limits, we must consider the relationship between the metabolism and the human warmth organism, and we can best achieve this in relation to a tumor, especially if it is located internally, but it is also possible externally — I will talk about these things tomorrow, particularly in the therapeutic part — by enveloping the tumor with a mantle of warmth. We only need to succeed in enveloping the tumor with a mantle of warmth. This brings about a radical change in the entire organism. If we succeed in surrounding the tumor with a warm coat, then — to put it simply — we also succeed in dissolving it. This is actually achieved when remedies such as those that have certainly been prescribed to you by our medical friends are used in the appropriate manner, when such remedies are administered by injection into the human organism. Once the specific effect on one or another organ system has been determined, one can be sure that in every case a heat blanket will be formed around the abnormal organ in question — for example, the carcinoma — by a Viscum preparation such as the one we use. The same cannot be applied to breast carcinoma, uterine carcinoma, or gatekeeper carcinoma. One must study the path taken by what is caused by the injection, but you will never achieve anything if you do not produce a real effect. And this effect is expressed by the onset of fever. The injection must therefore be followed by a fever. You can expect failure from the outset if you do not induce fever.
I wanted to mention this in principle so that you can see how these things are based on reason, but reason should only be a regulative principle. You will see that what is asserted by these regulative principles can be verified in the same way that such facts are verified according to the customs of modern medicine. We do not claim that these things should be accepted as assertions before they have been verified. But the fact is that anyone who really takes an interest in these things today can make remarkable discoveries.
Everything I have presented to you today — even if the sketchy presentation may be somewhat confusing, but it will become clear if you just look into the matter — you will find evidence of it in a remarkable way if you just take the correct facts on the one hand that are recorded in the literature — these things are recorded somewhere, and you can actually bring them close to the picture presented today —, especially if you do so in connection with something else, if you connect it with the numerous remarks you find in the literature: This is as far as one can go, but no further.
So you will find confirmation from two sides of existing medicine that what I have outlined today is true. I will now take the liberty of adding some therapeutic information tomorrow, which will clarify some of the things that may not have been entirely clear today due to the sketchy nature of the presentation.