this surface
becomes broken, it enters the part and infects it, thereby starting
the boil.

If this is true every person who wears old collars or dabbles his
hands in dirt should without exception contract boils. This is
obviously untrue.

The factor to be considered, then, is this. What is it that induces
boils in one person and not in another under identical circumstances?
The answer is obvious. The boil is not a local disease at all, but is
a manifestation of some constitutional defect, or of some impurity of
the blood stream, which enables this microbe to find a congenial
breeding ground.

The people who suffer most from boils are young or middle-aged adults,
and we usually find the two extremes among sufferers. There is the
full-blooded, often overfed, individual and there is the pale,
debilitated and emaciated person whose constitution is broken down by
worry, overwork, sexual troubles, unhealthy surroundings or badly
selected foods.

If we inquire into the constitutional history of these cases we shall
almost invariably discover that the digestive or assimilative
processes of the body are not working smoothly. This may be due to the
worry or overwork, or to unhealthy surroundings which dis-harmonise
the digestive and nutritive functions, or to nervous exhaustion from
one cause or another, or it may be due to the wrong diet, which is
filling the colon (or large bowel) with fermenting poisons.

When the body is clogged in this manner nature often proceeds to get
rid of the accumulating waste through the skin. By a vigorous effort
on the part of the life-force the impurity is thrown outwards to the
surface. Looked at in this light a boil is really a most salutary
cleansing agent, and the Nature-Cure practitioner, who calls it a
"Crisis," often does everything in his power to produce boils when
treating chronic diseases.

The alternative is often some more deeply seated form of elimination,
resulting in serious organic disease of the organs or tissues. One of
the first signs of improvement in disorders like diabetes,
consumption, arthritis, Bright's disease, or even cancer, is the
appearance of boils, showing that the vitality has improved to an
extent sufficient to enable the foreign matter to be expelled by means
of relatively harmless boils. The hydropathic expert also tries to
induce this condition by means of his mustard and water packs.

If our correspondent wants to rid herself of her boils she must