A Talk on Nature’s Remedies

A TALK ON NATURE'S REMEDIES. BY J. H. WARD, EDITOR OF "bEOBACHTER," SALT LAKE CITY,

It is quite probable that there are not a hundred persons in the United States who are familiar with the interesting history of the development of the ideas concerning the remedies that nature has provided for the preservation of health, or the restoration of it. These ideas are not of mushroom growth, nor in any wise re- semble the development of Jonah's gourd. On the other hand, their originmay be traced back through many centuries. Some twenty-four centuries ago, there lived in Greece a man whose master mind recognized great truths, and formulated mighty prin- ciples the influence of which has grown with the lapse of time, until now their importance is recognized. This man, Pythagoras, numbered among his disciples such men of genius as Socrates and Plato. It was he who first conceived the idea of the rotundity of

the earth, and of its revolution around the sun. Pythagoras estab- lished a health colony which he called Crotona. There he gathered about him hundreds of disciples to whom he taught the simple rules of life which he himself had followed. These comprised ab- stinence from all unwholesome foods, especially meats, for Pytha- goras considered the slaughter of animals as sacrilege. In Crotona there were no slaughter houses or butcher shops. Temperance in all things, an active out-of-door life, simple dress, purity and uprightness in conduct, were strictly enjoined by this prophet of a then newly-taught truth. The decadence of Greece had already set in, and the doctrines of Pythagoras were little appreciated. The members of his health colony were massacred by their ignorant and degenerate countrymen: yet, his philosophy survived. The famous biographer, Plutarch; the noble old Roman, Seneca;

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the Latin poet, Ovid, and many of the early Christian fathers, fol- lowed in after years the teachings of Pythagoras. Byron, during the better part of his career, so also Shelley, Goldsmith, and many other English writers, accepted these teachings. The great Rus- sian writer and reformer, Leo Tolstoi, is also an ardent defender of these doctrines. A little less than a hundred years ago, a fourteen-years old peasant boy of Germany, who was barely able to read and had not been taught to write, while engaged in cutting wood on a mountain near his home, observed a wounded deer bathing its injured leg in one of the numerous springs which abound in that region. Day after day, the deer came and bathed the damaged parts until en- tirely healed of its injury. The boy (who was afterward known as the philosopher Preissnitz) soon after suffered a severe accident from which the physicians, who were consulted, declared he could not recover. He tried the deer's remedy, applying water by means of wet cloths placed over the injured parts, and in a few weeks was quite restored to health. He induced others to try his remedy, and invented many different ways of applying water by means of baths, douches, packs, compresses, and various other methods. Before he was twenty, he had become famous. During the first half of the last century, the little village of Graefenburg, where he lived, was thronged with invalids from all over the world, in- cluding many physicians and notable people of high station, govern- ment officials, princes, lords and barons, who sought relief by the employment of water skillfully applied under the direction of this prophet of a new method of healing. Institutions known as "water-cures" sprang up in Germany, France, England and America. For many years they flourished, but failed in some cases on account of want of knowledge and reckless experiment. Half a century ago, there gathered, on a little farm not far from New Haven, Connecticut, the most remarkable collection of men and women who have ever been associated in any community in modern times. George Ripley, the most famous Unitarian min- ister of New England at that period, was the founder of the com- munity. The practical realization of the Pythagorian philosophy was the central idea of the Brook Farm experiment. Among the

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one hundred and forty members, many of whom afterward became eminent, were Emerson, the philosopher; Bronson Abbot, the trans- cendentalist; Thoreau, the interpreter of nature; Margaret Fuller, the educational reformer; Charles Dana, the founder of the New York Sun; and Hawthorne, one of the greatest literary lights of the past century. The Brook Farm experiment failed for lack of financial management, but the ideals survived. Something over thirty years ago, a small group of men organ- ized in Battle Creek, Michigan, a society which recognized the principles taught by Pythagoras and those who have followed his teachings during the last two thousand years; and, in 1876, it be- came known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium. In addition to the healing by means of the application of water, there has been intro- duced many other natural remedies, notably the Swedish movement cure. Gradually, by means of observations and researches, an elab- orate and carefully perfected system has been developed, and Battle Creek became a Mecca for health seekers who thronged the place, summer and winter. During several years, the number of visitors exceeded six thousand annually. Then came the great fire of February 18, 1902, which con- sumed the two principal buildings of this Sanitarium. This loss seemed to start a wave of sympathy for these health reformers; and, in the short space of fifteen months, another temple of health has been erected. The new building is five hundred and fifty feet in length, and seven stories high, and, as far as possible, fire proof. Seven hundred patients can be comfortably accommodated. The arrangements for baths are very elaborate, as also applications of electricity, light, heat, and all natural methods, in addition to or- dinary medical and surgical means. It is strictly unsectarian and

undenominational. The doctors, managers, and nurses, seem to be filled with enthusiasm for the doctrine of simple, natural living. Many similar establishments have started in various parts of the United States, notably in Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Boston, Massachusetts Society is awakening to the benefits of pure air, healthful exercise, pure food, and frequent bathing. The evils of improper clothing now begin to be understood. In spite of the foibles of dame fashion, the evils of tight lacing, long, trailing skirts, and thin shoes, are