Essiac Essentials

the following 14th of August, I felt it leave my stomach and it went right out of me. Everything before that that I passed was as thin as water, and I felt this go down and on and out of me. I was very foolish in not catching it. It seemed to be about 4 inches long and about three-quarters of an inch in diameter.
    Q That is the cancer?
    A Well, it was the growth that was there ......... whatever it was. It might have been a cancer; I do not know anything about it.
    Q You felt this thing go on through?
    A I certainly did. It went through me and out of me. I could feel it about four inches long and about three-quarters of an inch in size. After that I could eat anything I liked. I felt so good I felt hungry, and I felt so good, I could just eat what I wanted to eat. Now I can eat anything but the real sour things, such as pickles and that, which really go against me. It seems as though they will not digest properly and will give me pain. I can eat anything else, especially lots of meat, good fat bacon and pork, and I can eat that all along.
    Q How long did you continue the treatment?
    A Well, I took eleven, and this left me, and I took on and off from that. I took about a month regular every week and since that I have only taken them in about three weeks, and, in the most, two months. Last, I think, I was down here between the 1st and the 4th — along there — and I have not been here since the last of November.
     
    Commissioner Callahan:
    Q Before you took these treatments, were you eating very well?
    A No.
    Q If you ate a full meal what would happen?
    A Well, it would lay in my stomach and I would vomit it out.
    Q Did that happen very often?
    A Well, I guess about 100 times or more.
    Q Did you lose weight?
    A Yes. I dropped 22 pounds in about two weeks.
    Q Have you gained it back?
    A Yes, I have gained it back now. I was hardly normal. I am within 2 or 3 pounds of being normal now.
    Q You have weighed up to 157?
    A Yes, I have weighed up to 170 and 165, along there, and then 150 and 155 pounds, and sometimes it would drop to about 150, but I certainly believe if I had not come here I would have been dead long before this.
    Q Did you take other treatment...
    A No.
    Q ...of any kind?
    A No. She did wonderful work for me.
    Q Do you feel quite well in every way?
    A Yes, 1 feel fine.
    Q Do you do any work?
    A Yes.
    Q What is your occupation?
    A Well, now I do any job I get a chance to.
    Q You live in Huntsville in town?
    A Not in town; I have a home out of town, but I can work a long day now.
    Q Yes, I see. Thank you very much. You have not far to go today?
    A No.
    Q That is all.
     
    The witness retired.
     
    * * * * *
     
    In addition to these verbatim testimonies from witnesses to the Commission, records from Rene’s Bracebridge Clinic (which we have seen) contain many accounts from individual patients testifying to the benefits they received from Essiac in the 1930s.
    This one is a perfect example of ‘doctors in denial’:
    MRS T DOUGLAS — Age 43
    Copy of pathological report — Public Health Laboratories, Division of Pathology, Department of Health, Ontario.
     
Dr. A L Hoare, Markham, Ontario
Diagnosis: Carcinoma of the cervix
Gross specimen: Consists of a number of irregular small fragments of granular material from the cervix.
Microscopic report: Sections of the tissue show it to be composed largely of fibrous connective tissue which is being infiltrated with great masses of atypical epithelial cells which appear to be arising from squamous epithelium. However, these cells are very poorly differentiated and very malignant, but radiosensitive.
J.A.Ansley, Pathologist
     
    Mrs Douglas had her first treatment at the clinic on August 12th, 1938. She boarded in Bracebridge for six weeks.
     
    “I was an invalid that summer, unable to eat and down to 117 pounds in weight. I went (to Bracebridge) on a bed made in the back of the car, on a mattress with a feather tick folded on it, and I could stand no jolting of the car. As I lay in my bed, I could see the clinic on the hill and it reminded me of the Cross on the Hill of Calvary. It was the only ray of hope I had in the whole world.”
    On September 24th Rene Caisse recorded: “Patient starting to slough off pieces of growth; feeling and looking very well. ” Patient stated, “In six weeks, I had gained 17 pounds, improved my appetite and was able to sleep.”
    Eight weeks after the first treatment, Mrs Douglas “passed a growth about the size of a baseball