NATURAL HYGIENE HISTORY

Natural Hygiene history is part of the history of healing and.

OLD PARADIGM --- "DISEASE IS THE PROBLEM"

This has been the common way to look at disease for millennia, and is still very popular:
Disease is the problem - and the way to get rid of the disease is to stop the disease symptoms. The cause is mysterious. Fear of
inexplicably being struck by disease is typical.
Example: a cold is "cured" when the cold-symptoms, sneezing and fever, have been stopped by some concoct. Mysterious
cause - perhaps a cold originates from getting too cold, perhaps from bacteria, or what?
Example 2: cancer is "cured" by attacking the growths with chemo & radiation & operations. The cause is mysterious. A billion
dollar industry is built around "cancer research".

"Hygiene" and "Nature Cure" appeared in the early 1800's.

Here is a look at the historical development of "cures":

Magic & spirituality

The primitive mind's belief in spirits, which interfere in man's life for good or evil and are able to cause disease,
was probably universal, and still is widespread. Evil spirits could enter the body. The solution - rituals, magic rites,
offerings and other efforts to appease the invisible higher beings that rule over health and disease
"Western medicine really began in ancient Greece. The earliest mythical doctor was the god Asclepios
(Lat. Aesculapius), father of the goddess Hygieia. Various diseases were treated by 'incubation" or
temple sleeping. The patient made a request of the god, usually for cure, and; while the patient slept
within the confines of the temple, probably aided by an opiate, the god visited in a dream. The snakes
would crawl over the patient during the night and the patient would wake in the morning cured."
"The Iroquois of New York and Ontario gathered in a longhouse for ceremonial and religious purposes.
Wooden masks, skilfully but grotesquely carved played an important part in their ritual, and were alleged
to be portraits of the strange quasi human beings whom the forest hunters met at nightfall, darting from tree to tree, and
resembling disembodied heads with long snapping hair. These beings were held to be involved in the cause and cure of
disease, and were invoked and worshipped in complex dance rituals, sometimes under the influence of tobacco and or
other drugs."

Cutting and manipulating

Surgical methods as a cure were obviously also developed very early - in the beginning probably by cutting out and
removing problematic body parts.
Acupuncture was used in China before 2500 BC using sharp stones, which were replaced by metal needles around
400 BC. Acupressure, reflexology and some energy methods are probably even older.
"Evidence that surgery was occasionally practiced in the 4th century BC Asclepian temples in Greece is shown in the
following: 'A man with an ulcer in his stomach. He incubated, and saw a vision: the god seemed to order his followers to
seize and hold him that he might incise his stomach. So he fled, but they caught and tied him to the door-knocker. The
Asclepian opened his stomach, cut out the ulcer, sewed him up again and loosed his bonds. He went away whole, but
the floor of his chamber was covered with his blood.'"
"If a physician performed a major operation on a seignior with a bronze lancet and has caused the seignior's death, or
he opened the eye-socket of a seignior and has destroyed the seignior's eye, they shall cut off his hand. If a physician

performed a major operation on a commoner's slave with a bronze lancet and caused (his) death, he shall make good
slave for slave." Hamurabai's Code, Mesopotamia 3000 BC
"It seems in most ancient cultures there is a tradition of working on the feet to help the body balance itself. .... For
instance, in Egypt, in the physician's tomb (2300 B.C.) there can be found a pictograph which may be evidence of
reflexology being applied."
"CHUN DO SUN BUP is a 6000 year old ancient healing method that uses the power of the original ki energy and is
deeply rooted on the Taoist principles of creation of life.... The Master transmits vital energy by using a particular sound
vibration which clears the blockages and stimulates the circulation of energy."

Folk-medicine, traditional medicine

Medicinal plants, animal parts and minerals, like mica and gypsum, have been used for a long time to get rid of
disease symptoms. Knowledge was often collected and handed-down by women.
"The use of plants as medicine is older than recorded history. As mute witness to this fact, marshmallow root, hyacinth,
and yarrow have been found carefully tucked around the bones of a Stone Age man in Iraq. These three medicinal
herbs continue to be used today. Marshmallow root is a demulcent herb, soothing to inflamed or irritated mucous
membranes, such as a sore throat or irritated digestive tract. Hyacinth is a diuretic that encourages tissues to give up
excess water. Yarrow is a time-honored cold and fever remedy that may once have been used much as aspirin is
today."
"Treatment involved plant remedies, of varying pharmacologic effectiveness; the Chippewa around
1925 used around 200 plants in different ways, for the treatment of a wide variety of common ailments,
in a manner similar to European herbal folk medicines two centuries before. Medicines were given
orally, by inhalation or by enema. Often the healer would induce altered consciousness, perhaps in a
sweat lodge, would let blood, and use supernatural or magic remedies."
"Animal ingredients have long been part and parcel of the Chinese pharmacopoeia. Records from 2000 years ago tell of
some 20 animals including snakes and rhinos being used in medicines. ---- Lately, however, TCM (Traditional Chinese
Medicine) has come under fire for its use of animals, especially of endangered species. Heading the list are poaching of
rhinos in Africa, and tigers in India and Siberia. ... A team from China's endangered species commission obtained data
from 13 TCM manufacturers, which annually consumed 506 kilos of scorpions, 2796 kilos of freshwater turtle shells,
797 kilos of saiga horn, 29 kilos of bear gall powder, 25 kilos of leopard bone, 3039 pairs of geckos, and 9650
centipedes. As there may be as many as a thousand TCM manufacturers in China, the quantities used nationwide must
be mind-boggling."

Folk-medicine - major systems

With time simple folk remedies often became big extensive systems, that had to rely on highly educated specialists
- e.g. Traditional Chinese Medicine, Indian Ayurvedic Medicine, Greek- Arabic Medicine.
"The Greek system, started by Hippocrates - you were governed by a balance of these body types: 1. Sanguine (air)
hot/moist 2. Melancholic (earth) cold, dry 3. Phlegmatic (water) cold/moist 4. Choleric (fire) hot/dry - that decided what
disease you were prone to get - and the cure.
Galen (130 A.D.) assigned foods and herbs to each of the four humours that form the basis of "galenical" dietetics and
medicine that was accepted throughout Europe and the Middle East for 1500 years."
"Arabic medicine derived from Constantinople and followed the armies of Mohammed. The medicine of the Arabic world
transmitted classical Roman and Greek traditions to early modern times. They developed new medicines camphor,
saffron, myrrh, musk, iodine, naphtha and senna. They developed chemical methods in preparing the active principle of
these drugs, distillation, sedimentation and crystallization. Large medical schools developed in Damascus, Bagdad,
Cordoba and Cairo."
"Ayurveda was based on balance and harmony with nature and the utilization of therapeutic diet, herbs, rituals, various
physio-therapies. These principles were accordingly modified as they were assimilated by different cultures, customs
and geographical conditions. In Tibetan medicine, for instance, we see an obvious blend of Ayurvedic and Traditional
Chinese Medicine, with the Chinese principles of Five Elements, the Three Humours, acupuncture and moxibustion."

Poison, bleeding, blistering

In the 1800's the excesses of doctors and the cottage industry drugs led to general loathing and ridicule of the
medical profession by the public in USA and Europe. This is the time when a revolt, "Hygiene", emerged.
"In Canada in 1829, treatments in vogue included horseback riding for pulmonary tuberculosis, scotch
snuff plaster for croup, leek poultices for gout and a decoction of carrots for jaundice. Dropsy was
treated by bleeding, tapping, and plantain and liverwort."
"For at least a century strychnine was the best remedy the profession had for palsy and paralysis. It was
used to kill cats and dogs; it was deadly to hogs and cattle and, when given as a poison, slaughtered
human beings. But when given as a medicine, it was a tonic, a nervine, a remedy for our palsied fellow men. --- During
most of the last century, it was standard medical practice to withhold water from the acutely ill and thousands of patients
literally died of dehydration. --- Many of the patent medicines amounted to little more than cheap whiskey. Alcohol was
a foundation of the many bitters that were sold to the people as tonics, as it was the chief ingredient in many of the
patent nostrums sold to women for female diseases. They even sold remedies for alcoholism that were chiefly alcohol."
"In addition to drugging their patients to death, physicians have frequently bled them to death. ... Bleeding was resorted
to in cases of apparent death from a fall and in other injuries. Bleeding was employed in wounds and head injuries that
resulted in unconsciousness. Not only were pregnant mothers bled, but physicians also drew blood from blue babies. ...
According to the legend, Robin Hood was bled to death by a man to whom he had resorted for relief from an
inflammatory disease. ... Indeed, the blood-loving and bloodspilling allopaths shed the vital current of their patients for
over 2,000 years before they were compelled, by the opposition of other schools and rising public protest, to
discontinue the bleeding of the sick. ... It is probable that physicians spilled more blood than all the wars during the
same period."
"In the days of which we write, patients were bled, blistered, purged, puked, narcotized, mercurialized and alcoholized
into chronic invalidism or into the grave. The death rate was high and the sick man who recovered without sequelae
was so rare as to be negligible. It is certain that if well persons had been put to bed and subjected to the same
treatment to which the sick were subjected, they would have inevitably been made very sick and some of them would
have been killed.---- By 1850 it was easy for a man of no particular training to attend lectures for one winter and emerge
a full-fledged doctor."

Revolt & reform - "Hygiene" & "Nature Cure" emerges

In the early 1800's some medical doctors discovered that discontinuing drugs & surgery gave better results with
their patients. New methods like fasting and raw diets were developed, exercise & sunshine & fresh air were
recommended, and a comprehensive "medical" theory about natural healing and health was created. In Europe this
new science was called "Nature Cure", in USA "Hygiene" or "Orthopathy". This soon became a large (anti-drug &
cleanliness & exercise etc.) movement, one of the great reform-movements (like anti-slavery, women's rights, etc.) being formed around
1820-1850. More on the next pages.
Petroleum-based industrial drugs
In the 1900's medical doctors regained respect from the public by weeding out most of the worst excesses. This was
done partly through adopting hygienic measures (like washing hands before surgery) - partly through cooperation
with big money to create socalled "scientific medicine" based on new mass-produced chemical drugs.
"Not only has the Rockefeller-I.G.Farben combine been instrumental in fostering chemical-based drug treatment as the
basis for health care, they have been the dominant adversary against safer non-drug treatments."
"In the years prior to World War I, there came into existence an international cartel, centered in
Germany, that dominated the entire world's chemical and drug industries and was a powerful
economic and political force in all countries. It was known as I.G. Farben. When John D. Rockefeller
interlocked his American-based, international empire with that of I.G. Farben in 1928 there was
created the largest and most powerful cartel the world has ever known. Not only has that cartel
survived through the years, it has grown and prospered. ...
In order to expand their drug operations the Rockefellers set about "educating" the medical profession. Abraham
Flexner, author of the famous Flexner Report of 1910, led the crusade for upgrading the medical schools of America.
A.Carnegie and J.D.Rockefeller had set up gigantic tax-exempt foundations for that purpose. The end result was that all
medical schools became heavily oriented toward drugs and drug research, for it was through the increased sale of

drugs that the donors realized a profit on their donations."

Late 1900's revolution

Similarly to what happened in early 1800's there is now an emerging group of doctors in revolt (more or less) using nutrition rather than drugs. They base their ideas on anthropological findings about early man, as well as new
science about the insulin mechanism. But they are still far from formulating a system of general laws for health, as
was done by hygienic doctors in the 1800's.
There is also a new phenomenon - all-raw meat eating: "the primal diet".

NEW PARADIGM --- "DISEASE IS THE SOLUTION"

This concept was revolutionary when it first appeared, and still is. A new paradigm - a new way of
thinking - that still is new, almost 200 years later:
Disease is the solution, the way to get rid of disease is stop breaking the divine laws about how to
take care of ones body. The cause is obvious - wrong behavior. It is easy to avoid disease. One
knows exactly how to remove disease if it appears.
Example: a cold is elimination started by an overload of toxins - the cause may e.g. be overeating the day before. No big deal
- just rest and sleep more, and eat less - and let the body do its cleaning job undisturbed - one knows that the cold will soon
be gone.
Example 2: cancer is the last stage of continually breaking universal divine laws - excessive toxicity is making the cells go
crazy. The solution is to stop all toxins, return to a pristine mode of living, give the body maximal rest (including mental rest).

Natural Hygiene history

Summary
"Hygiene" became very popular in the 1800's, both among healing practitioners and the public --- but in the 1900's
it lost ground to the medical (allopathic, drugging) system, that had gotten a powerful ally in the Rockefeller drug
& oil empire. The medical system gradually did adopt the sanitation-part of Hygiene, while rejecting its no-drugs
philosophy. When "sanitation" and "hygiene" as a consequence became synonymous, the prefix Natural was added
to Hygiene.
In the 1800's there was some side-tracking by hydropathy, and in the 1900's diet became a major topic, e.g. the
dangers/benefits of veganism.

Background
"The "medical art" in America during the colonial period had been simple and unpretentious. There were no
medical schools and few physicians."
"By the time the period arrived (1800's) ... the schools of healing had arrived; folk medicine was almost obsolete. A
considerable medical literature with Latin and Greek terminology had accumulated; medical colleges (schools of
physic) had been established; ... Homeopathy and chrono-thermalism had come from Europe to compete with the
dominant school, which became known as the allopathic school;"
".. each school accused the other of killing its patients, an accusation which could be well substantiated against each
school. In addition to this struggle, there was a wide-spread drug nihilism among medical men, the leading medical
authorities of both Europe and America agreeing with the statement made by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes that if all
the drugs of the pharmacopeia were cast into the sea it would be better for mankind, although a bit hard on the
fishes. Is it to be wondered that the people became distrustful of their physicians and began to believe that they
were being killed in the process of being cured?
"How is a man who is already sick to be made less so by swallowing a substance that would sicken, even kill him if

he were to take it in a state of health? Whoever has had his bowels moved into convulsions by cathartics, his teeth
rotted by mercurials, his liver enlarged and impaired by tartar emetic knows that the effects of drugging are many
and varied, but always evil."
"In addition to drugging their patients to death, physicians have frequently bled them to death. Butchers bled pigs to
kill them; physicians bled patients to cure them."

Beginnings
(Early 1800's:) "The whole medical system of Western society was in a state of chaos and confusion. It is not
surprising that the revolution had its first beginning in France, where medicine was most progressed. As early as the
beginning of the nineteenth century, there were physicians in France who discarded drugs and relied upon "nature"
and "good nursing."
Nature Cure in Europe: "... the revolution in Europe and that in America were interrelated and interconnected.
Especially did the works of Priessnitz, Schrodt and Rausse of Germany, Ling of Sweden and Lamb and Combe of
Britain influence the American scene. The French school seems to have exercised very little influence outside of
France."
"Should we marvel that the people lost confidence in their physicians and began to (correctly) suspect that they
were being killed by them? A real revolutionary situation existed. The time was ripe for a change."
"It was into the milieu of doubt and uncertainty, of disease and death that Sylvester Graham threw a stone in 1830.
... Only the existence of a revolutionary situation, created by the failures and contradictions of medical theories and
practices, made possible the immediate and widespread acceptance of the truths announced by Graham, his
contemporaries and successors."

Dr. Jennings - only water and bread pills from 1822

"Isaac Jennings, M.D.: - After 20 years spent in the regular drugging and bleeding practices of the
time, during which his confidence in drugs and bleeding had grown steadily weaker so that his
lancet had been sheathed and his doses were fewer, further apart and smaller, he discontinued all
drugging in 1822 and relied thereafter on Hygienic care of the sick, using water (drops of it) and
bread pills to meet the demands of his patients for "medicines" for another 20 years before he
made public the secret of his phenomenal success."
"He noted, also, in consultation with his more experienced professional brethren, that old doctors, as a general
rule, gave much less medicine than young ones. The former trusted more to nature; the latter trusted all to drugs.
This led him to doubt the prevalent ideas of the faculty of medicine; and further observations induced him to
discard them altogether."
" ... he furnished one pocket with an assortment of breadpills; another pocket was stored with a variety of powders
made of wheaten flour, variously scented and colored ; and a third pocket with a quantity of vials filled with pure,
soft water, of various hues. ... Diseases vanished before him with a promptness unknown before. His fame spread
far and wide." H. Shelton, 1968, ch.2.
Dr. Isaac Jennings, who served as Oberlin's mayor in 1849, came to Oberlin in 1839 as a physician with an honorary M. D. from Yale University. Jennings practiced a
system of medicine which he termed orthopathy. Jennings lived a long life as a member of Oberlin: he died in 1875 at the age of 86.

Hygiene theory - early development

Dr. Jennings' theory of disease
"Jennings continued his no-drug practice, which he called the "let alone" practice, for another 20 years before
he retired. He worked out a theory of disease, diverse from any that had preceded him, which he called
Orthopathy." H. Shelton, 1968, ch.2.

"Disease, in this theory, is a unit and, in its various forms of fever, inflammation, coughs, etc., is entirely true to the
laws of life, which cannot be aided by any system of medication or any medication whatever; but, relying solely upon
the healing powers of the body and placing his patients in the best possible conditions for the operation of the body's
own healing processes, by means of rest, fasting, diet, pure air and other Hygienic factors, he permitted his patients to
get well."

Sylvester Graham
"Sylvester Graham, with 'The Science of Human Life,' made a great step in advance; and,
though some of his theories are not what later developments would approve, he nevertheless
made a valuable attempt at systematization."
"Herald of Health, January 1865, says of Sylvester Graham, who was not a physician, that he
was "pre-eminently the father of the philosophy of physiology. In his masterly and celebrated
work, the 'Science of Life,' he has given the world more philosophy and more truth concerning
the primary and fundamental laws which relate man to external objects and to other beings, than any other
author ever did -- than all other authors ever have."
"Medical deprecations of Graham's work began very early. One Dr. Bell ... reduced Graham and Grahamism to
smouldering ruins with such matchless and devastating logic as "eutopian dreamers," "modern empirics and
modern innovators," "self-conceited and opinionated dogmatism," "visionary novelties," "new sect of fanatics,"
"men of erratic and visionary genius," "modern Pythagoreans," "bigoted exclusives," etc., etc." H. Shelton, 1968,
ch.2,3.

"Beginning with Graham's lectures and the publication of the Graham Journal of Health and Longevity, the
Hygienic movement pushed forward with vigor and enthusiasm. As early as 1850 the Water-Cure Journal had a
circulation of 18,000. ... So vigorous was Hygiene promulgated and so great was the enthusiasm with which the
people accepted it, it was estimated in January 1852 that the practitioners of the two schools -- hydropathy and
hygeiotherapy -- outnumbered the practitioners of any of the medical schools -- allopathic, homeopathic,
eclectic and physio-medical -- in this country."
Dr. Trall
R.T. Trall M.D. - "... it was left to him to solve the great primary problems which must underlie
all medical systems, and to base a theory of medical science, and a system of the Healing Art,
on the laws of nature themselves. No author except him ever traced medical problems back to
their starting point, and thereby discovered their harmony or disharmony with universal and
unalterable law. In this manner he has been enabled to do what no other author before him ever
could do, viz, explain the nature of disease, the effects of remedies, the doctrine of vitality, the
vis medicatrix naturae, and the laws or conditions of cure. His philosophy goes back of all
medical systems and proves to a positive demonstration the fallacy and falsity of medicating
diseases with poisonous drugs."
"In 1862 Trall delivered in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington his famous lecture, The True Healing Art,
or Hygienic Versus Drug Medication. It should be recorded that after this lecture was delivered, there was a
heavy demand that it be delivered elsewhere. Complying with this demand, Trall delivered this lecture in
several other cities. Writing in November 1873, Trall said that "allopathic physicians could be named both in
this country and in Europe who had immediately abandoned the whole drugging system after reading The True
Healing Art, and that some of them were then practicing Hygienically."
"All history attests the fact, that wherever the Drug Medical System prevails, desolation marks its track, human health
declines, vital stamina diminishes, diseases become more numerous, more complicated, and more fatal, and the
human race deteriorates. On the contrary, wherever the Hygienic Healing System is adopted--and there is no
exception--renovation denotes its progress, and humanity improves in all the relations of its existence. "

"In April 1862 Trall issued a call for the formation of a National Hygienic Association, to be made up of
Hygienic practitioners, male and female. In 1860 Trall issued a booklet on the Principles of Hygeio-Therapy."

Hygiene and Hydropathy - confusion

Hydropathy - using water as a drug
"Hydropathy spread quickly in America. According to one account, 213 cure centers were established
between 1843 and 1900. Although most treated both sexes, the centers were especially popular with
women; and women, who had long been denied access to the "regular" medical field, not only gained
acceptance but took the lead as water-cure physicians."
"The introduction of hydropathy into this country occurred 22 years after Jennings had discarded the
drugging system and adopted the Hygienic practice. ... The Hygienic movement was already well
established and had thousands of adherents at the time of the introduction of the water-cure into this
country. Its books and magazines already had a wide circulation."
"Great numbers of physicians had lost confidence in drugs and took advantage of the water-cure as a
means of escaping from the drugging system. Even though they adopted more or less of Hygiene in
connection with their water-cure practices, they called their practice hydropathy and called themselves
hydropathists. ... Many physicians who turned to water-cure thought of water as an agent that
could be made to take the place of drugs altogether. In other words, they professed to be able to do
with water everything that they had formerly sought to do with drugs."
"Hydropathy presented a totally fresh approach to childbirth, denying that it
was a disease, as the allopaths seemed to believe, or that it was of
necessity excruciatingly painful because it was God's punishment for Eve's
sin, as many believed. Water curists taught that excessive pain in childbirth
was the result of poor health. They stressed extensive exercise and proper
diet during pregnancy and the relaxing effects of free movement and warmwater baths during labor. Women found they could be up and about a few
days after delivery. With the scientific management of allopathy, two months of invalidism after
delivery was not uncommon. ...
By the middle of the nineteenth century women's health in America was in a deplorable state. Catherine Beecher,
sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, made an informal survey of over 1,000 women and
found that the sick outnumbered the well by a ratio of three to one.... Mrs. Beecher's suggested remedies for women's
poor health were three: dress reform, vigorous exercise, and participation in the water cure."
Separating Hygiene and Hydropathy
"The practices of the early Hygienists were a composite mixture of hygiene and hydropathy, while
most of the practitioners were designated as hydropathists."
"Writing on the health reform movement in December 1853, William Alcott M.D. (1798 1859) designates the physiological (hygienic) as distinct from the hydropathic part of the
movement. He mentions also that "our periodicals and our books also repudiate as absurd
the idea of curing disease," and that "all the elements of hygiene, and these only, are
the true materia medica." - It is important that we keep these distinctions in mind. The
physiological reform (Hygiene) had its origin in this country. Hydropathy had its origin in
Europe. The two movements mingled and ran along together for a time, but they were
separate and distinct and must be understood in this way if we are to grasp in clear
outline the evolution of the Hygienic System."
"In an editorial in the Journal, May 1858, Trall speaks of those "who do not distinguish between water
treatment and hygienic treatment," thus setting the two systems apart from each other. ... At least as
early as 1853, Trall's institution was listed as a hydropathic and Hygienic institute. .... When people
discontinued the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol and animal foods, they were following Graham and
Alcott, not Priessnitz."
"Instead of being a revolutionary movement, it (hydropathy) turned out to be a mere reform movement;

instead of calling for radical changes in the ways of life, it sought merely to substitute water in the form of
baths, hot and cold applications, enemas, douches, packs, fomentations, dripping wet sheets, etc., for
drugs. Such treatments have no legitimate place in a system of Hygiene."

Natural Hygiene early doctors

Medical doctors abandon drugs
"When a man begins to doubt the drug system, it is difficult to stop. ... An
example of the transforming power of a new idea is supplied us by Dr. James C.
Jackson's (M.D.) conversion to hydropathy.
He explains in 1861 that he had no more desire to disbelieve his allopathic education
than he had to become an infidel in religion; but he had come face to face with a group
of facts: He had seen a number of patients recover health from apparently hopeless
conditions without drugs; within a few months these so-called incurables were walking
about quite vigorously and ultimately returned home in good health. He reasoned to
himself: "What power is it that has done this work?" He answers: "One naturally would, under such a
glimmer of light as I had, be disposed to ascribe the result to some specific agent.
- Jackson thus repeated an old and common mistake--that of mistaking coincidence for cause ... and the
healing power of the body is always ignored." H. Shelton, 1968
"It is because the world stands so much in need of this knowledge that we are determined to make it available to
those who might come within the sphere of our influence. And though we have had to suffer as almost all persons
who undertake the promulgation of new truths, we have been able to endure and that is what always wins new
victories." James C. Jackson
Health Conventions
"The movement initiated by Graham and Alcott and measurably contributed to by Mary Gove, and which
was early joined by Dr. Jennings, represents the beginning of the Hygienic movement. ... This was only
the beginning and many subsequent men, especially Trall, Taylor, Nichols and Jackson, added their weight
and thought and their experience to the evolution of the new but old way of life. ...
Two health conventions were held by the American Physiological Society (founded in 1837 by Sylvester
Graham) under the general term of the American Health Convention. The first of these opened in Boston
1838. The second was held in New York 1839. Physiological societies were formed in several cities, ... and
a provision store, which may properly be called the world's first health food store."

Colleges & Civil War

In 1853 Dr. Trall founded the New York College of Hygeio-Therapy, and half of the first class graduates were
women. In 1858 Drs. Austin and Jackson founded a 250-bed institution in New York: Our Home on the
Hillside. Ellen White, a hygienist and Seventh Day adventist, called for "Health Reform in the name of The
Lord" in many books between 1864 and 1915. Clara Barton, a hygienist, founded the Red Cross in 1881. In

1887 Dr. Susanna Dodds founded The Hygienic College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The Civil War 1861-65 had a devastating impact - general impoverishment caused the closing of hygienic
colleges, magazines and institutions. Hygiene never regained its dominant position.
Hygiene influences medicine
"Neglect of the Hygienic needs (especially of the need for rest, fresh air and water) is not as persistent nor as
criminal today, thanks to the work of Hygienists, hydropathists and nature curists, as it was a hundred years
ago; (but the total Hygienic program is far from having been accepted). By line upon line, precept upon
precept and volume upon volume, the workers for a revolution in the way of life have done a good job.
Jackson declared that the changes in medical practices that occurred during his lifetime had been due "clearly
and wholly to the promulgation of the principles" of Hygiene. "

1) Theory develops: What is the real cause of disease?

Enervation & toxemia
John Tilden M.D.(1851-1940) first practiced medicine and surgery for twenty-five years. Personal experience,
however, led him gradually to lose all faith in drugs, and like Jennings, he began to use sugar tablets blank
cartridges, he called them which he continued to give (to use his own words), "until I was mentally evolved
to the truth that even sugar pills were injurious, in that the make believe medication educated my patients into
believing that their improvement was due to the supposed drug they were taking. This is the harm in doing for
sick people anything labeled curative."
Dr. Tilden finally gave up the placebo practice and learned to rely upon Hygiene. He established an institution
in Denver, Colorado, to care for the sick along natural hygiene lines, where he remained until his death in 1940.
An interesting tidbit: Dr. Tilden recommended a silver-dollar's size of raw chopped meat per day. (
"Twenty-five years I practiced the science of medicine. During most of that time I did not know why
people were sick, got well, nor why they died. ... When visiting the sick, I had no idea of how I should
find them at the next call. I did not know if the disease would end soon or late. I did not know if it
would take on a severe form, or quickly run its course. I did not know whether or not there would be
complications. In fact, I did not know anything that would make me comfortable regarding the
outcome of the disease. ... I had the usual stock-in-trade subterfuges that are worked off on a
confiding public, for example: 'If no complications arise, the patient will recover.'"
"I defy the so-called best practitioners ... to undertake to prove that what I am saying is not true. Not
one can tell from one day to another how his patients will be. ... Not one can say with any certainty that the drug he
prescribes will have the action he hopes to experience. Not one can tell, after the first twenty-four hours of medication,
whether the symptoms presenting themselves are those of disease proper or due to drugs."
"To sum up: No doctor knows anything definite about his patients after the first day's drugging; Every honest doctor will
admit that there is an unknown quantity about every case he treats which forces him to guess if asked to give his
opinion."
"The toxin theory of the healing art is grounded on the TRUTH that TOXEMIA is the basic source of all diseases. So
sure and certain is this truth that I do not hesitate to say that it is by far the most satisfactory theory that has been
advanced in all the history of medicine. It is a scientific system that covers the whole field of cause and effecta
system that synthesizes with all knowledge, hence a true philosophy."
"When this truth first began to force itself upon me, years ago, I was not sure but that there was something wrong with
my reasoning. I saw that it would bring me very largely in opposition to every established medical treatment. I held
back, and argued with myself. ... I fought to suppress giving open utterance to a belief that would, in all probability,
cause me to be hissed at subject me to the jeers and gibes of the better class of people, both lay and professional.
"Little by little I have proved the truth of my theory. I have tried it out daily for the past twenty years. I myself have
personally stood the brunt of my experimenting, and have willingly suffered because of it. Every day this trying-out of
the theory has convinced me more and more that TOXEMIA IS THE UNIVERSAL CAUSE OF DISEASE."
"As has been stated continuously in my writings for the past dozen years, the habits of overeating, overclothing, and
excesses of all kinds use up nerve energy. When the nerve supply is not equal to the demands of the body, organic
functioning is impaired, resulting in the retention of waste products. This produces Toxemia."
"Man can be enervated, yet not sick; but he cannot be poisoned sick without being enervated.'

"Dr. Tilden tells us that it was at the cook-stove that he learned that how a sick kitten clings to heat; that in
caring for animals, he first learned that the sick creature will not eat. These two lessons were later to bear
fruit in his practice."

Enervation & toxemia & deficiency

In the 20th century, Dr. Gian Cursio started emphasizing deficiency more, probably due to his experiences with
deaths & diseases from vegan deficiencies. Here Dr. Bass, a student of Cursio, explains:
"Generally speaking, diseases are caused by any or all of 3 factors - namely:
enervation, toxemia or deficiency.

TOXEMIA
There are 2 sources of toxemia:
-- Toxemia which is caused by the ingestion and accumulation of
substances which are foreign to the body and toxic in nature, such as
chemicals, drugs, etc. These produce irritation, inflammation and pathology in bodily organs and
systems.
-- Toxemia which is due to the accumulation of toxic wastes resulting from the food and beverages we
eat and drink; unnatural food or natural food in excess beyond what the body can use at the moment.
Retention of this excess leads to decomposition of the food and the production of irritating and toxic
chemical wastes, which provide a fertile field for the growth of microbes and various species of
bacteria, which further increase the toxic state.
DEFICIENCY
Deficiencies: The insufficiency of necessary food substances, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats,
minerals, vitamins, enzymes etc., lead to breakdown of cells, tissues and organs which is given names
of diseases, according to its location.
o

ENERVATION
John Henry Tilden, M.D., formulated a theory of the cause of disease as due to a recurring cycle of enervation
and toxemia.
Enervation is the reduction or loss of energy occasioned by
-- the lack of rest or sleep, or
-- the excessive use of emotion, negative thoughts, worry, stress, or
-- the overdoing of physical actions, overeating etc. "
Dr. Stanley S. Bass: How Important is Diagnosis?

Read more in INHS magazine: What is Disease:

Toxemia - retained body wastes and metabolic toxins.

Enervation - loss of energy which cause a slowdown and retention of body wastes leading to:

A waste
of energy!

These produce further enervation or weakening of body energies leading to greater and increased
toxemia, establishing a recurring vicious cycle until a saturated toxemic state is produced forcing
an elimination process called acute disease.
Energy loss is also caused by the use of toxic stimulants such as coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco,
drugs, environmental poisons, etc. Also negative mental and emotional states, loss of rest and
sleep.
Processed foods, altered foods, preservatives, food colorings and many toxic chemicals added to flavor foods,
irradiation, overcooking, etc. contribute to toxemia and enervation. Also included are overeating especially,
overexercising, or overwork.

Deficiencies - caused by refining of food, which removes vital substances, or food from depleted soils. This is
very common and almost worldwide in prevalence today.

(2) Theory develops: Laws of Life

Laws of Health
What is the Laws of Life? Essentially the manual - the key to understanding how we function and why we are
sick or healthy. If you understand and follow these laws you'll be healthy. If you break them you will get sick.
"The laws of life are not something imposed upon the organization of man. They are imbedded in the very
structure of our being, in our tissues, our nerve and muscle cells, our bloodstream, into the total
organism. ... Since these laws are fundamental parts of us, we cannot revolt against them without
revolting against ourselves. ... We cannot run away from the laws of being without running away from
ourselves. There simply is no escape, except in death."

Here are a couple of the laws:

A) Energy is the basis

Robert Walter M.D. (1841-1924) is credited with beginning to formulate the "Laws
of Life" or "Laws of Vitality" as he called them - including the basis: "Life's Great
Law". It states that the overriding goal is self-preservation/survival. And that the
success of life depends upon the amount of energy available. Lots of energy equals
health, while low energy equals disease:
Lifes Great Law: Every living cell of the organized body is endowed with an
instinct of self-preservation, sustained by an inherent force in the organism called vital force or life
force or Nerve Energy. The success of each living organism whether it be simple or complex is
directly proportioned to the amount of its life force and inversely proportional to the degree of its
activity.

This basic energy law has four secondary Laws of Vital Relation: --- (1) The Law of Action, (2) The Law of
Power, (3) The Law of Dual Effects, and (4) The Law of Vital Accomodation (S. Bass: The Laws of Life)

1) Dead things can NOT act

A very common error today - you hear it all the time: this drug or herb will do something, will give
more energy, will remove pain and so on. Wrong! Dead things (in the form of drugs) cannot act, only
the body has power of action.
The Law of Action: "Whenever action occurs in the living organism, as the result of
extraneous influences, the action must be ascribed to the living thing which has the power of action
and not to the dead whose leading characteristic is inertia."

2) Vital power comes from within

Even if it looks like taking a drug creates an immediate relief, there is no power in the drug itself. The
relief is due to an action by a body that has enough vital power.
The Law of Power: "The power employed, and consequently expended, in any vital or
medicinal action is vital power, that is, power from within and not from without."

3) Body reaction to a drug changes with time to the opposite.

Whenever a drug is taken - what looks like relief it this: vitality being redirected (from the original
problem) to deal with the new poisonous threat -- the drug. The body deals with the drug
immediately, first-priority. This is the first effect, stimulation. The second effect is a state of
weakness. E.g. alcohol appears to strengthen for a while, but is soon followed by diminished function

and weakness.
The Law of Dual Effects: "All agents which are taken into the body or which come in contact
with it from without occasion a two-fold and contrary action in time, the secondary or reactive action
being the opposite of the active or primary one."

4) To survive - destroy or adapt to poison

You cannot steer the body's reactions - they are always automatic and instinctive, with this single
goal: self-preservation and survival. If a drug enters, the body can react in two ways - either throw
out the toxin, or adapt itself by working at a lower vitality level.
The Law of Vital Accommodation: The response of the vital organism to external stimuli is
an instinctive one, based upon a self-preservative instinct which adapts or accommodates itself to
whatever influence it cannot destroy or control.

(3) Theory develops: Diseases in stages

1930's : From flu to cancer
Dr. Tilden's revolutionary writings in the 1930's explained the seven stages of disease and what happens when
our energy level gets lower and lower. Note that a sick person can move down the steps (get worse), or up (get
better) - it is simple cause and effect, and we have power to reverse the trend. T

THE SEVEN STAGES OF DISEASE

STAGE ONE IS ENERVATION: Nerve Energy is so reduced or exhausted that all normal
bodily functions are greatly impaired, especially the elimination of endogenous and exogenous
poisons. Stage One thus begins the progressive and chronic process of Toxemia Toleration
that continues through all of the following stages. The Toxic Sufferer does not feel his normal
self. He feels either stimulated or depressed by the poisonous overload.
STAGE TWO IS TOXEMIA: Nerve Energy is too low to eliminate metabolic wastes and
ingested poisons. These toxic substances begin to saturate first the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids and then
the cells themselves. The Toxic Sufferer feels inordinately tired, run-down, and out of it.
STAGE THREE IS IRRITATION: Toxic build-up within the blood and lymph and tissues continues. The
cells/tissues where build-up occurs are irritated by the toxic nature of the waste, resulting in a low-grade
inflammation. The Toxic Sufferer can feel exhausted, queasy, irritable, itchy, even irrational and hostile. During
these first 3 stages, if The Toxic Sufferer does consult a medical doctor about the reason for his low energy and
irritability, the doctor tells him: There is nothing wrong with you. These symptoms are all in your head. You
are perfectly healthy!
STAGE FOUR IS INFLAMMATION: The low-grade, chronic inflammation from Stage Three is leading to
the death of cells. An area or organ where toxicants have amassed next becomes fully inflamed. The Toxic
Sufferer experiences actual pain, along with pathological symptoms at this point. With the appearance of these
symptoms, the medical doctor can finally give The Sufferers complaint a name. Traditionally, medical
scientists have named many of the 20,000 distinctly different diseases after the site where the toxins have
accumulated and precipitated their symptoms. Once the set of symptoms is conveniently named, the doctor can
mechanically prescribe the antidote from his Physicians Desk Reference or from his memorized medical/
pharmaceutical repertoire. Standard medical doctors thus commence drugging and treating at this stage.
STAGE FIVE IS ULCERATION: Tissues are destroyed. The body ulcerates, forming an outlet for the
poisonous build-up. The Toxic Sufferer experiences a multiplication and worsening of symptoms while the pain
intensifies. Standard medical doctors typically continue drugging and often commence with surgery and other

forms of more radical and questionable treatment at this stage.

STAGE SIX IS INDURATION: Induration is the result of long-standing, chronic inflammation with bouts of
acute inflammation interspersed. The chronic inflammation causes an impairment or sluggishness of circulation:
and because some cells succumb, they are replaced with scar tissue. This is the way we lose good, normalfunctioning cells by chronic inflammation and death of cells. Toxins may or may not be encapsulated in a
tumor, sac, wen, or polyp. The Toxic Sufferer endures even more physical pain, which is intensified by the
emotional distress of realizing that he is only getting worse, regardless of his earnest, obedient, even heroic
attempts to get well. Standard medical doctors continue with both drugging and surgery and all other kinds of
modalities deemed appropriate, both conventional and experimental. (Induration means hardening or
scarring of tissues.)
STAGE SEVEN IS IRREVERSIBLE DEGENERATION AND/OR FUNGATION (CANCER): Cellular
integrity is destroyed through their disorganization and/or cancerous proliferation. Tissues, organs, and whole
systems lose their ability to function normally. Biochemical and morphological changes from the depositing of
Endogenous and Exogenous Toxins bring about degenerations and death at the cellular level. The Toxic
Sufferer is a pathological mess: he is on his deathbed. Standard medical doctors declare at this stage: There
is no hope left. You have just so much longer to live. You need to make preparations accordingly. Failure of
vital organs eventually results in death.

(4) Theory develops: System-building

Dr. Herbert Shelton - cleaning and organizing
Dr. Herbert M. Shelton (1895-1984) was a brilliant man with unique abilities and happened to be the right man
for the right job - reviving Hygiene and creating a complete hygienic system.
"It was my effort to revive a movement that had been allowed to all but die. .... The message of Natural Hygiene is
now heard around the world." Herbert Shelton

CLEANUP: Dr. Shelton took the old hygienic writings and separated the real stuff from the therapies. He
removed the junk, and made Hygiene intelligent. He cleaned up Hygiene, e.g. by removing hydropathic ideas.
ORGANIZATION: He organized the collected knowledge, while giving credit to the hygienic masters.
SYSTEMATIZATION: He systematized Hygiene to create a system of pure basic principles, and lifted Natural
Hygiene up to a higher stage.
Dr. Shelton was always on top of the latest research and commented on it. He would just
listen, listen - and when he spoke he was usually analytically correct.
His decision to choose a vegan diet-concept and abandon Dr. Tilden's chopped raw meat
may have been his largest mistake from today's perspective, but it was based on
contemporary science.
He gave his whole life to the cause of cleaning up and re-creating Hygiene. He often worked
almost all night on writing his books using his extensive library, writing the monthly
magazine Hygienic Review, and during the day taking care of patients at his Health School together with Dr.
Vetrano - in his lifetime doing the labor of many men. He did a lot of writing, 40+ books, and gave many
lectures - sometimes in a not too easy-to-digest style.
Herbert Shelton had a great sense of humor and told lots of stories. He was sure of himself, had humility, and
honored the old hygienic masters and those with more knowledge.
He was principled, with a very high accuracy rate and he was a fearless warrior for the truth, jailed up to 30
times. He was not always diplomatic but could be a skilled politician.

Herbert M. Shelton
"Herbert Shelton first became acquainted with the system at the tender age of 17 (1912). He started to probe into its past and
single handedly exhumed the vast storehouse of knowledge that lay neglected and unread. Beginning in 1919, he began
sifting, selecting and testing what those who had gone before had left as a heritage.
Shelton became increasingly determined that there must be a renaissance in natural hygiene. His formal education in the
health field was obtained at the International College of Drugless Physicians in Chicago which was founded by Bernarr
Macfadden in 1920. (The College despite its name, was more like that of Trall's, in its curriculum and principles, than any
subsequent college.)
In 1922, he graduated from the American School of Naturopathy and did post graduate work at the Peerless College of
Chiropractic in Chicago. In order to obtain clinical experience, Shelton interned in various institutions before setting up
practice for himself. From 1925 to 1928 he was on the staff of Macfadden's Physical Culture magazine and was the health
columnist for the New York Evening Graphic. His articles were hard hitting and impressive in their message on health and
disease; especially so was the one on Rudolph Valentino and his untimely death brought on by medication.
Year 1928
The year 1928 was a landmark in the 20th century Natural Hygiene Movement, for three reasons.

Dr. Shelton came co-founder and co-owner of How to Live Magazine, which laid the groundwork for his
Hygienic Review, a publication which came out eleven years later and earned for itself recognition as the
most informative journal on health and disease for the lay person.
Secondly, he established an institution to care for the sick through physiological resting, or fasting, which
provided a living laboratory of the physiology of health recovery.
Lastly, Dr. Shelton published his first great work Human Life: Its Philosophy and Laws, which incorporated much of
the teachings of the pioneers, and was the forerunner of a host of other volumes on correct living for the prevention of
disease and the recovering of health.
Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review
It was fortunate that before Dr. Tilden's depth in 1940, which brought to an end his Health Review and Critique, that
Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review made its debut (Sept. 1939), and thus left unbroken the continuity of magazines
devoted to the Hygienic ideal which have been published came into being in 1832.
Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review was never able to pay for itself, yet it continued each month without missing an issue,
even during the difficult days of World War II when help was scarce and paper rationed. Never did it double up on two
months as did many other publications.
Dr. Shelton humorously relates how be managed to almost single handedly put out the magazine, while at the same
time operate his institution in San Antonio, Texas. "I would make beds, sweep floors, serve meals, wash dishes. Often
after getting through with the noon day dishes, I would hop into my car and give my printer a hand in getting out the
magazine."

"If our theory is true, that disease is vital action abnormally expressed, then to our minds it follows, irresistibly, that
such means as the organism needs and must have to keep itself in health are the means, and the only means, which it
needs and must have to restore lost ground. What are these means? To settle this question, we have merely to
provide a satisfactory answer to the question: what are Hygienic materials? By Hygienic agents, said Trall, the
Hygienist means "things normal." Briefly, they are food, water, air, light, heat, activity, rest and sleep, cleanliness and
wholesome emotional influences.
Hygienic materials have nothing in common, in the body, with the "remedies" of the physician. Throughout the whole
realm of nature we find nothing provided for the repair of injury, except that which is consistent with the health of the
body when uninjured.
Look with us at the relations of life to which the sick are subjected. One may be constitutionally feeble and it may be
that he has been sick all his life. Yet physicians do to him, steadily and persistently, what no argument could induce
them to do for the plants in their garden. Instead of caring for the sick as they would a valuable rose bush, nursing him
or her, watching over the patient, waiting upon him and giving the forces of life a chance; instead of keeping things
away that exhaust and providing things that nourish, all the "dregs and scum of earth and sea" are employed in a vain
effort to restore health without any consideration being given to the causes of the disease. As the living organism, well
or sick, is the same organism and as there is no radical change in its structures or its functions and no radical change
in its elemental needs in the two states of existence, we need a system of care that is equally applicable to both the
well and the sick."

"Most people's prejudices against the Hygienic System arise out of the very simplicity of its means and methods. So long
have we been educated to belittle and deprecate the simple health requirements of nature and to rely upon the mysterious
and incomprehensible and to misunderstand the nature of disease and to grossly overrate the danger of certain conditions,
that we find ourselves entirely unable to appreciate the adequacy of the means employed in Hygienic practice to the
accomplishment of the ends sought.
We are frequently asked: where are our experiments? Do we need experiments to prove that man cannot live without air?
Are we called upon to prove that fresh air is better than foul? Must we show experimentally that rest and sleep are nature's
processes of recuperation? Must we demonstrate the value of cleanliness? Are experiments needed today to convince us
that violent emotions are ruinous? Have we so far forgotten the benefits of exercise that we need them demonstrated to us
in the laboratory? After all the experiments that have been performed, that confirmed the experiences that processed and
refined foods are inadequate to meet man's nutritive needs, do we need more experiments to demonstrate this fact all over
again? Can we not accept the very means by which we live without having to have their value demonstrated in the
laboratory?
The medical profession, through every means at its command, has long taught people to poison themselves with deadly
drugs whenever they were ill. They have long, too long, taught the doctrine of casting out devils through Beelzebub. In the
days of our ignorance this may have been permissible. But now light has come into the world. A new dispensation has
dawned.
Evil must be overcome with good. Disease must be limited by supplying the conditions of health, not by producing new
diseases. The medical profession no longer serves any possible end. The eyes of the people are being opened to the hard
consequences of medicine's false philosophy and fatal practices. The profession, its philosophy and its practices should
pass and be forgotten."