Excerpts
Graham, S., Trall. R., Shelton, H. (2009) The Greatest Health Discovery. Youngstown, OH. National Health Association
Pg 12
“The development of the philosophy of Natural Hygiene was pioneered in the 19th century mostly by medical doctors, and includes such names as Sylvester Graham, Mary Gove, Isaac Jennings, Russell Thacker Trall, Robert Walter, Thomas Low Nichols, Susanna Way Dodds, James Caleb Jackson, Charles E. Page, and John Henry Tilden.
This book is about those pioneers, about their work in the evolution of Natural Hygiene, about the Hygienic Movement they founded to bring this great health discovery before the people, about the 20th century Hygienic movement, and ends with a look into the future and the glorious health potential that awaits mankind through Natural Hygiene.”
Pg 18
“Natural Hygiene science ‘cures’ sick people by removing the cause of disease. It removes the disease by removing the necessity for it. It believes Nature is right, and hence does not seek to thwart her operations. It declares that disease is a natural process of purification, and should not be stopped, but aided. Its remedies are Nature’s health preservatives. Obedience to Nature is its greatest panacea. Air, light, food, water, exercise, rest, sleep, etc., in such manner and degree as Nature can use are its curatives. Remove the Cause, and the effect will cease. THIS IS NATURAL HYGIENE SCIENCE.”
Pg 32
“Among professional men of his time, Dr. Jennings seems to have made but one convert. Dr. William Alcott of Boston became an advocate of the Jennings’ theories and practices and rejected those of the hydropaths. Jennings’ work did greatly influence such professional men as Drs. Trall, James Jackson and successors in the field of natural hygiene such as Robert Walter, Charles Page, Felix Oswald. Dr. Jennings, unfortunately, was not a crusader, a fact that was very harmful to the early days of the Hygienic Movement. Had he promulgated his views and practices with greater ardor and attacked the water cure system with more force, many mistakes of the early Hygienists may have conceivably been avoided.”
Pg 58
“Robert Walter, M.D.
“There must be a way to live exactly right, which if a man does, he will grow into health,” said a young schoo! teacher to himself in desperation. He was beginning to despair of life because every physician to whom he went diagnosed his condition differently and proceeded to make him worse than he already was. Thus Robert Walter began a long series of experiments upon his own body, and years of study of the subjects that relate to health and impaired health.
Like Graham, Trall, Tilden and many others, who have turned to Hygiene, Walter was forced to study the matter himself because physicians were interested in disease and not in health.
Walter was born Feburary 14, 1841. His degree in medicine was obtained at the Hygieo-Therapeutic College founded and administered by Trall. Walter, like other pioneers in the Hygienic Movement, did a great deal of writing. He was famed throughout the world for the excellence of results he obtained in the care of all forms of impaired health at his Hygienic institution at Wernersville, Pennsylvania. He died October 26, 1924.
”
Excerpt From
The Greatest Health Discovery
Sylvester Graham, Russell T. Trall, and Herbert M. Shelton
This material may be protected by copyright.
Shelton, H. (1934). The Science and Fine Art Fasting – The Hygienic System: Volume III National Health Association, Youngstown, OH.
Pg 252
“Fasting in Special Periods and Conditions of Life
CHAPTER XXVI
Special periods of life and certain conditions of the body are often regarded as bars to fasting, even by those who profess a belief in the beneficial efficacy of the practice. Let us consider a few of them. But first let us consider:
WHY FAST
A temporary expedient of this nature must be recognized as a fundamental and radical process that is older than any other mode of caring for the sick organism, for it is employed on the plane of instinct and has been so employed since life was first introduced upon the earth. It is hardly conceivable that both animal and human instinct would lead to the continued adoption of the process throughout the ages if it failed to meet some urgent need in the organism of the sick. It may be said, with Dr. Robert Walter, that fasting “liberates vitality (energy) to be used in the process of purification” and that this energy, in health, would “otherwise be used in the process of appropriating food materials. He said of the fast that it “is exceedingly beneficial in the great majority of diseases. Indeed, in many of them the capacity to “appropriate food is entirely destroyed, the very thought of it becoming repugnant to the individual.”
Excerpt From
The Science and Fine Art of Fasting
Herbert M. Shelton
This material may be protected by copyright.
Shelton, H. (1934). The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene – The Hygienic System: Volume I. National Health Association, Youngstown, OH.
Pg 38
“No one accustomed to observing the exact order and harmony that prevail in the world about him will question that his own body is constituted upon precise and fixed principles and that the vital machinery is controlled by express law. Dr. Robert Walter formulated what he regarded as the primary controlling law of life, which he denominated Life’s Great Law, as follows: “Every particle of living matter in the organized body is endowed with an instinct of self-preservation, sustained by a force inherent in the organism, usually called vital force or life, the success of whose work is directly proportioned to the amount of the force and inversely to the degree of its activity.”
In thus formulating the primary law of life Walter followed Newton’s formulation of the Law of Gravity. I think he followed it too closely. I would substitute “every living cell” for “particle of living matter,” for the cell is the unit of organic existence and we have no evidences that particles of matter as such are ever living. Even organized structures are not necessarily alive. Certain highly organized parts of the living organism are not alive.”
“Every living thing, from the one-called organism to man, is possessed of an instinct that seeks to provide for its own interests–to appropriate food, seek light, air, water, and warmth and to protect itself and avoid injury. This inherent tendency to self-preservation is essential to the existence of living organisms. Self-preservation is the primary or controlling expression of life and, normally, is subordinate to no other law except, at times, to the instinct of race preservation, in which case the individual often sacrifices itself for the protection of the young or the flock. Primarily, life seeks to preserve itself and to maintain vital integrity. All the functions of life have reference to this effort at self-preservation either of the individual or of the race. Nature aims at wholeness. This is as much true of the single cell as of the complex organism. Nor does the validity of this law of self-preservation depend upon the truth of any particular theory of the nature of life. It is true whatever life may be.”
Pg 82
“The Hygiene of Health
CHAPTER XI
“There must be a way to live exactly right, which, if a man does, he will grow into health,” said a young school-teacher to himself some years ago. He was beginning to despair of his life because every physician to whom he went diagnosed his case differently and proceeded to make him much worse than ever. Then began a long series of experiments upon his own body, and years of study of the subjects that relate to health and disease. That man, young Robert Walter, later became one of the leaders in the Hygienic movement. Like many others who have turned to Hygiene, he was forced to study the matter for himself because physicians are interested in disease and not in living.”
Pg 190
“There must be a way to live exactly right, which, if a man does, he will grow into health,” said a young school teacher to himself over half a century ago. He was beginning to despair of life because every physician to whom he went diagnosed his condition differently and proceeded to make him much worse than ever. Then began a long series of experiments upon his own body, and years of study of the subjects that relate to health and impaired health.”
“This young man, Robert Walter by name, later became one of the most outstanding leaders in the Hygienic movement. He was born February 14, 1841, and died October 26, 1921. Like Graham, Trall, Tilden and many others, who have turned to Hygiene, he was forced to study the matter himself, because physicians are interested in “disease,” not in health. His degree in medicine was obtained at the Hygieo-Therapeutic College founded and administered by Trall. To Trall, Jackson and Jennings he gives most credit for his own work.”
“His Hygienic institution at Wernersville, Pa., was a large institution and was famed throughout the world for the excellence of results obtained there in the care of all forms of impaired health including the so-called incurable conditions. He was a man of brilliant mind; a keen thinker and careful logician. Someday he, along with Jennings, Graham, Trall, Taylor, and Tilden will take their justly deserved places in America’s Hall of Geniuses.”
Pg 197
“The number of books and booklets issued that delt with Hygiene in general or with some particular phase of it was great and they had wide distribution. Numerous magazines were published monthly and semi-monthly. The Graham, Journal of Health and Longevity was issued twice a month. Alcott edited and published The Journal of Health and The Library of Health. Starting as The Water Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms, and edited and published originally by Dr. Joel Shew, this monthly magazine had the widest circulation of any of the magazines devoted to the promulgation of Hygiene. Acquired by the Fowler and Wells Pub. Co., which published most of the Hygienic literature of the period, Dr. Trall was made editor. Its name was changed to The Hygienic Teacher–and then to The Herald of Health. Purchased by Dr. Trall, it continued on as the Herald of Health until he sold it to two of his graduates who changed its name to The Herald of Health and Journal of Physical Culture. Under this name it continued in publication until nearly the close of the century.
Dr. Trall, after the sale of the Herald of Health, published and edited another magazine[…]”
Excerpt From
The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene
Herbert M. Shelton
This material may be protected by copyright.
Trop, Jack. (1961). You Don’t Have to Be Sick. New York: Julian Press.
“In recent years investigators who have contributed greatly are Dr. Henry S. Tanner, Sylvester Graham, Dr. Robert Walter, Dr. John H. Tilden and Dr. George S. Weger.
One could multiply these names many times over. These are the experienced men of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—scientists, investigators, scholars who dedicated themselves to the study and practice of the basic truths of Hygienic living with particular emphasis on the role of the fast.”
Pg 35
“Four Reasons for Fasting”
“Dr. Robert Walter, prominent for his work in Hygiene, was head of the world-famous Hygienic Walter’s Park Sanatorium at Wernersville, Pennsylvania. He states that a moderate “hunger cure”—as fasting had been termed early German Nature Curists and early Hygienists—is exceedingly beneficial in a great number of diseases. In understanding the way fasting can help the human organism let us examine briefly here fundamental areas where total fasting, with the sole exception of drinking water, can play an important role. We have already begun to explore what we may call area number one—weight reduction. There can be no question that fasting produces the quickest, safest and most effective avenue available for weight reduction. “But it is important to note that in the cases of overweight individuals, weight reduction is an added benefit even when not the sole, or even the main reason for the fast.”
Pg 117
“Nutrition being a function of life, occurring only in living things, is a product of the power of life, properly called vital force, while the conditions for operation of this power are, first, a machinery or organism through which it may work; and second, the materials needed to build and repair the organism. The power is first, always has been first, with the machinery or organism as its product and nutrition as its process.
ROBERT WALTER, M.D.,
The Exact Science of Health, 1909”
Excerpt From
You Don’t Have to Be Sick
Jack Dunn Trop
This material may be protected by copyright.
Shelton, H. (1968). Health for the Millions. Youngstown, OH. National Health Association.
Pg 17
“Dr. Robert Walter stated that brandy, whiskey, wine, beer, vinegar, and sauerkraut are products of decay, on the same plane as barn-yard manure or the contents of a cesspool. Describing the method of making sauerkraut, he said that “if cabbage were treated this way by chance, and not by design, it would be considered fit only for hogs to eat; indeed, the fermentation of the swill-barrel is not one whit different from the fermentation of sauerkraut, and the one food is just as wholesome as the other. When men shall learn the great truth that when food is subjected to processes of fermentation, which are processes of decay, it is entirely unfit for human stomachs, sauerkraut, vinegar and wine will disappear from our tables.”—HEALTH, Nov.-Dec., 1882.”
Pg 215
“Employ soft water, as soft as obtainable, at a temperature near that of the body (Dr. Robert Walter’s “neutral bath”). Wash your body as you do your face; do not remain in the tub or under the shower for long periods and soak yourself, as so many do. Man is neither fish nor amphibian.”
Excerpt From
Health for the Millions
Herbert M. Shelton
This material may be protected by copyright.
Shelton, Herbert M. (1974). Fasting For Renewal of Life. Youngstown. National Health Association
Pg 50
“Chapter 14
WHEN, WHERE AND HOW LONG TO FAST
Called the “hunger cure” by European Nature Curists and many early Hygienists, fasting has shown by “large experience,” as Robert Walter, M. D., expresses it, “… that a moderate hunger-cure is exceedingly beneficial in the great majority of diseases. Indeed, in many of them the capacity to appropriate food is entirely destroyed, the very thought of it becoming repugnant to the individual.”
“Rest and the hunger-cure,” Walter regarded as the “proper treatment” of those who were suffering from overwork, overeating, and sexual excesses. He pointed out that when there was functional impairment, coated tongue and bad breath, no food should be taken. When uncomfortable in any way, stop eating until feeling well, he advised.”
Excerpt From
Fasting For Renewal of Life
Herbert M. Shelton
This material may be protected by copyright.
Shelton, Herbert. (1968). Natural Hygiene: The Pristine Way of Life Youngstown, OH. National Health Association.
Pg 32
“Hygienic Medication at the time this editorial was penned included the use of modalities of the “Water Cure;” whereas Graham’s recovery took place before Priessnitz had originated his water cure. The importance attached to the work of Graham is further attested by a statement made in this same editorial that the lectures and writings of Graham and Alcott had previously prepared the public mind for the investigation of a new mode of treatment. Here reference was had to hydropathy or the water cure, which was introduced into America from Germany in the early forties of the last century. Also, there is the statement made by Robert Walter, M.D., in an article in the January 1874 issue of The Science of Health, that “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.”
Pg 148
“The skin is an expanded nervous organ, adapted to originate and transmit to correlative parts two kinds of sensory impulses, that of touch and that of temperature. Every sensory impulse, however slight, transmitted by any terminal nerve, however minute, even though not capable of effecting the consciousness, is still competent to occasion action in the nerve center connected therewith. The repeated application of extremes of temperature, either hot or cold, in the application of hydropathic measures, may thus easily reduce the functioning powers of the patient by as much as they waste his energies.
This depressing effect of water treatment was strongly emphasized by Dr. Robert Walter, writing several years later. But we are here interested in Taylor’s analysis of the doctrine of crisis. He correctly traced these “water cure crises“ to the accumulation in the blood stream of “secondary products“ or “evolved products of organic change“ that are retained due to the depression of the organic capacities. As we would phrase it today: enervating treatment, placing an added tax upon the nervous system, further checks excretion and the resulting increase in toxemia precipitates a crisis or a process of supplementary elimination. The crisis “becomes necessary, not because the treatment has raised the body’s resistive powers, as was and is taught in some quarters, but because the treatment results in increased toxemia.
“I regard the production of crises, whether by drugs or water,” continues Taylor, “as an evidence of the impropriety of the remedial means employed, or of the method of using such means, and of a radical misapprehension by the physician of the mode in which health is maintained and acquired, unless, indeed, these effects are traceable to his cupidity.” Further: “It is lamentable to witness the effects of these extreme purgative efforts, whether by means of drugs or water. The victim, sustained only by that paramount function of the puerile mind, credulity, buffets the injuries heaped upon him till they transcend physiological endurance and then, instead of the promised health, finds every sense converted into a means of deceiving the judgement …”
”
Pg
224
“Wilder’s History of Medicine, 1899, says: “Colleges of Hygiene for the instruction of students have been established in St. Louis, Cincinnatti, and other places, beginning their career with encouraging prospects. The founder at St. Louis was Miss Susanna W. Dodds, a physician of merit and intelligence, abundantly capable of bringing her views into successful realization. The courses of study include the branches of knowledge usually taught in medical colleges, together with Hygiene, Sanitary Engineering and Physical Culture. But the professional hostility encountered, and the general indifference stood in the way of success, and most of these institutions now confine their operations to professional service.”
The college established in St. Louis by Dr. Dodds lasted only about three years. After its closing, Dr. Robert Walter made an effort to establish a college in Pennsylvania. The effort failed. One of the greatest needs of the present is a college of Natural Hygiene. At the present time no adequate means are available for training new Hygienic practitioners. The field is ripe and ready for the reapers. There is a growing demand for Hygienists and there is need to make Hygiene available to everybody.”
Pg 226
“Dr. Fairchild was the author of a book, How To Be Well, which was published in 1879 by S. R. Wells & Co. It was a small popular work describing Hygienic care of the sick and received the hearty endorsement of Dr. Robert Walter, who briefly reviewed it in The Laws of Health.
Dr. Fairchild wrote much upon Hygiene and lectured widely upon the subject. She asked: are female doctors acceptable; do the people receive them? “Yes,” she answers, “and there is a great demand for them. ‘Sick sisters’ are everywhere. Young girls are sick; they apply to a male physician; he gives drugs, which fasten her name on his books as a life-patient. From year to year she drags through girlhood and if she is strong enough to live in spite of her ‘remedies,’ she enters with a broken-down constitution upon womanhood …”
Excerpt From
Natural Hygiene: The Pristine Way of Life
Herbert M. Shelton
This material may be protected by copyright.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND NEVER MISS AN UPDATE