Timeline

1845: Born in Namur, Belgium, in 1845 on December 6th.

1865: He graduated from the University of Brussels. He also studied at Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Brussels, where he qualified as a physician and obtained his M.A. and M.D. degrees. 

1866: As a military doctor, he joined a corps of Belgian volunteers supporting Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. After Maximilian’s death, he traveled extensively in the interior of Mexico and other countries and finally settled in the US.

1877: An article titled The Climatic Influence of Vegetation — A Plea for Our Forests was written for the Popular Science Monthly. This 5-page article discusses rivers that have shrunk, decreased annual rainfall, and failed crops, all due to the destruction of the forests. He shares that a country destitute of trees is avoided by birds and left to the ravages of locusts and other insects. To restore a forest is slow and laborious. He proposes legislation to protect the woods.

1881: Dr. Oswald published an article titled “Physical Education” in Popular Science Monthly. In it, he discussed the following fallacies: leading strings, nostrum fallacy, stimulant fallacy, cold-air fallacy, fever fallacy, spa fallacy, and ascetic fallacy.

1882: Physical Education or The Health-Laws of Nature was published. In this 276-page book, Dr. Oswald covers diet (vegetable diet), indoor life, outdoor life, gymnastics, clothing, sleep, recreation, remedial education, hygienic precautions, and popular fallacies.

1883: Publication of Remedies of Nature for Dyspepsia was written for The Popular Science Monthly in July. In this article, Oswald discusses how the human body is self-regulating. That the automatic agencies of the organism generally suffice to counteract the disturbing cause. Drugs can rarely do more than change the form of the disease or postpone its crisis. Alcohol kills thousands each year. He shares how fresh air and being out in nature is a fantastic remedy. He includes keeping windows open to allow fresh air to come in. Diet should be nutritious but not stimulating. The first full meal should be taken after morning exercise.

1886: The book Household Remedies for the Prevalent Disorders of the Human Organism was published. 

As the title suggests, this 229-page book focuses on health issues humanity deals with. Dr. Oswald discusses consumption, dyspepsia, climatic fevers, asthma, alcohol and enteric disorders, nervous maladies, Catarrh, pleurisy, croup, and other miscellaneous remedies.

1886: The article “Remedies of Nature – Enteric Disorders.” was written for Popular Science, vol. 24. In this article, Dr. Oswald shares that Asclepiades, a Greek Philosopher, had created a unique course of exercise for every disorder of the human organism. He rejected medicines as a cure. He states that we risk mistaking the suppression of the symptoms for the suppression of the disease. For example, chronic overeating produces a sick headache. From this, we learned that numerous enteric disorders, or bowel complaints, are thus artificially developed. He discusses how to treat with a vegetable diet, thorough chewing, passive exercise, cold sponge and air baths, issues of diarrhea, and the benefits of fasting. He shares that adults should have two meals a day, drink cold spring water only, and strictly abstain from indigestible foods (e.g., cheese, rye, bread, sauerkraut, sausages, pickles, hard-boiled eggs, etc.). An occasional day of fasting will ensure the elimination of undigested food deposits.

1887: Dr. Osward continued his prolific writing and published The Poison Problem or The Cause and Cure of Intemperance. In Great Britain, the consumption of fermented and distilled liquors has increased since 1850 at the average yearly rate of three percent; in France, two percent; in Switzerland, five and a half percent; in northern Germany (including Saxony and Alsace-Lorraine) the manufacture of malt liquors has doubled since 1866; and even in the United States the consumption of intoxicating drinks of all kinds has advanced at a rate exceeding that of our rapid growth in population by one fifth. Dr. Oswald notes that “Temperate use” of alcohol is the first stage of a progressive disease and that, with moderation failing, we must adopt the motto of ” Eradication.” A Truce means defeat in the struggle against an evil that will reproduce its seed from the basis of any compromise. Removing (the cause) is much easier than suppressing the symptoms, just as much as abstinence is more manageable than temperance. In this 154-page book, he covers the Secret of the alcohol habit, the causes of intemperance, the physiological effects of the poison habit, the cost of intemperance, alcohol, drugs, prohibition, and subjective remedies.

1889: Dr. Oswald wrote a series of articles for a column titled International Health Studies for John Harvey Kellogg’s Good Health Journal and The Popular Science Monthly.

1900: Bernarr MacFadden and Dr. Oswald published Macfadden’s Fasting, Hydropathy and Exercise: Nature’s Wonderful Remedies for the Cure of all Chronic and Acute Diseases. This 234-page book is broken into three major parts: Part 1: Fasting (physiological data, the one meal plan, dietetic, restrictions, protracted, fast, and an experience of a seven-day fast), Part 2: Hydropathy (physiological data, the cold, water cure, air baths, climatic, sanitaria, ventilation) and Part 3 Exercise (physiological, data, outdoor and indoor exercise, gymnastics, and free movement cures).

1901: Bernarr Macfadden‘s publishing company released Oswald’s book, Vaccination a Crime: with Comments on Other Sanitary Superstitions.

1905: Dr. Oswald published a chapter entitled Gymnastics and Recreation in the book Vitality: How to Acquire And Conserve It: a Symposium of the World’s Greatest Authorities On Hygiene, Physical Development, Breathing, Diet Hydropathy, And All the Forces That Tend to Promote And Preserve Vitality. Dr. Oswald shares that happiness is the normal condition of every living creature, for in the state of Nature, every normal function is connected with a pleasurable sensation. He focuses on children in this article, citing to make your children happy and let them live in harmony with nature. 

1906: While waiting for a train to Albany at the New York Central Station in Syracuse, he was killed in a very tragic accident by a northbound train crash on September 27th at the age of 61.