(1845-1906)

Quote

“The physician who wants to know man must look upon him as a whole, not as a piece of patched-up work. If he finds a part of the human body diseased, he must look for the cause of the disease, not merely its external effects.”

–Paracelsus

About

Dr. Felix Oswald was born in 1845 in Belgium. His parents provided a good education for their son, eventually sending him to a medical college to become a physician. 

He graduated from the University of Brussels in 1865. Though trained in allopathic medicine, he became a first-rank Hygienist. He also studied at Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Brussels, where he qualified as a physician and obtained his M.A. and M.D. degrees. 

His studies in anatomy, pharmacopeia, physiology in hygiene, and other branches of natural science turned his mind down another path. He plunged deeper into studying natural history, a subject that fascinated him. 

As a military doctor, he joined a corps of Belgian volunteers in 1866, supporting Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. After Maximilian’s death, he traveled extensively through the interior of Mexico. He undertook years of travel through many different countries to aid him in his continued studies. Eventually, he came to live in America. He initially stayed in New York City, but then he turned westward. 

He was a prolific writer but never lectured in public. The theme of his writing was always pure nature. He spent a lot of time in the mountains of Tennessee, tramping over the Smoky Mountain Range and building temporary cabins when needed. He lived a solitary life, cooking his meals over a fire and sleeping many nights outdoors. He initially moved to Hamilton, Ohio, but finally settled in Indiana. 

His scientific contributions to the Popular Science Monthly brought him to prominent public notice. In a comparatively short time, he began writing for the American Free Thought Press. His literary works found their way into magazines and papers in Germany, England, and France, particularly on scientific topics in nature. He was a prolific writer and was published in the Popular Science magazine, The Monist journal, The Open Court journal, and the North American Review. About this time, Bernarr Macfadden started the journal Physical Culture, which, at first, was essentially Hygienic and was regularly contributed to by Dr. Felix Oswald. He also wrote articles under the general title International Health Studies for John Harvey Kellogg’s Good Health journal.

Bernarr Macfadden and Dr. Oswald were anti-vaccinationists. Macfadden’s publishing company released Oswald’s book Vaccination and Crime (1901). Dr. Oswald also authored Nature’s Household Remedies (1890), Physical Education (1882), The Poison Problem (1887), and Fasting, Hydrotherapy and Exercise (1901). 

He might have done even greater things for which his brilliant mind was so eminently fitted. Few men have done more for the freedom of thought than Dr. Felix Oswald, and it is a pity that his life was cut short on September 29, 1906, at age 61. Unfortunately, while journeying on a railroad train in Syracuse, N. Y., he was killed in a tragic train accident. Incorrect signals, a mistake, a crash, and a fire broke out upon the shattered wreck. Among the ruins was the body of Dr. Felix Oswald. 

Natural Hygiene has had a long and impressive history. Much of the health and nutrition advice being touted today as “new” and “revolutionary”—such as the advantages of a whole food diet, the incredible self-healing powers of the body, the role of fasting in the recovery of health, and the importance of avoiding unnecessary drugs and surgery—were promoted by Natural Hygienists as far back as 1822. Dr. Felix Oswald was one of its great pioneers.

Life in the 1800s

The medical “art” in America during this period seems incomprehensible today. Physicians frequently bled patients to “force” disease “out.” Many died in the process. 

If you got sick in the early 1800s, you were a candidate for barbaric “care” such as applying leeches directly on your skin, blistering, burning, and cauterizing (to “draw” the pain away); forced purging and vomiting; and of course, taking highly-toxic (and long since abandoned) drugs. Water was routinely withheld from the sick, heightening your chances of dying from dehydration. The death rate was relatively high, and the illness recovery rate was extremely low. The ‘cures’ were often worse than the diseases.

(Excerpt from the Natural Hygiene Handbook)

Grains, pork, bread, and lard pies were central to people’s diets, while vegetables and fruits were neglected. Many thought that fruits and vegetables caused cholera. 

Bathing and fresh air were feared. Houses were unventilated and foul-smelling, and sunlight was not permitted to enter. Sanitation was neglected, tobacco was used almost universally, and disease was rampant.

Impact of Diet or Lifestyle

Dr. Oswald was a naturalist and keen observer. After leaving college, he traveled to Central and South America, observing the impact of diet and lifestyle on various cultures.

Through his travels, he spent a significant amount of time on ships. He noted, “The sleeping quarters of the wooden ships, where the sailors slept, were reeking with an atmosphere a little better than the Black Hole of Calcutta. Perhaps a tad worse than a sewer tunnel.” He shared that on Captain Cook’s first South Sea voyage, a swarm of friendly islanders came aboard and had a picnic on the forecastle. On the boat tour, they made a short visit to the night quarters of their hosts. Down the ladders, they clambered with the agility of monkeys but came back even faster, sneezing and clutching their noses as if they had inhaled spirits of ammonia. They had plunged into the accumulated stench of a hundred nights, which was too much for their nasal and lung membranes—the very next day, every one of them suffered from lung congestion.

Dr. Oswald firmly believed that chaos in medicine would continue as long as the world believed that disease was an “entity.” Before we can establish a reliable means of caring for the sick, we must have a clear understanding of the needs of a healthy organism and have an equally clear conception of disease. Lacking this knowledge, we can only grope in the dark and continue to go astray, as had been done in the past. “Rightly interpreted,” says Dr. Felix Oswald, “the external symptoms of disease constitute a restorative process that cannot be brought to a satisfactory resolution until the cause is removed.”

As a prolific writer on many aspects of health, Dr. Oswald also wrote about raising children. He notes in his book Physical Education, “Fat, rachitic children present about the same condition as the farmer’s fat hogs. But mothers, nurses, and physicians all believe in cramming babies, like prize pigs, to suckle almost every half-hour, day after day, till habit begets a morbid appetite, analogous to the distress of the dyspeptic’s stomach.” Dr. Oswald held the view that nature has provided for the needs of the human infant during this period of life, as she has provided for the needs of young mammals.

In his book Physical Education, he says that “the appearance of the eye-teeth (cuspids) and lesser molars mark the period when healthy children may be gradually accustomed to semi-fluid vegetable substances. Till then, mother’s milk should be their only sustenance; however, nursing should continue as long as possible.

Comparatively few children are born with irretrievably unhealthy bodies. Even a delicate, petite infant, the offspring of unhealthy parents, may become healthy, robust, and beautiful through careful, prudent, and physical activity. However, vigorous, healthy children can also become miserable and unhealthy due to injurious feeding, bad air, lack of exercise, sunshine, and harmful addictive substances and behaviors.

Dr. Oswald believed that activity is as healthy for the child as breathing. Children want to be active, which is necessary for physical, social, and emotional development. However, clothing severely restricted their movements. He believed children should be permitted to run, jump, and romp with all their might from a very young age. They should be allowed to obey the “law of exercise,” which is part of the fiber and nature of their being. According to Dr. Oswald, “Nine-tenths of children are starving for recreation and would be healthier and happier if only allowed to play. I would undertake to cure a sick child with fun sooner than with tidbits, medication, and lethargy.” He shared that thousands of children do not know the joys of play and believed they were denied its wholesome, mental, moral, physical, social, and spiritual influences. Many children were forced to work in intolerable conditions. The pay was a mere pittance. He believed this stunted both children’s minds and bodies. Cold water was often thrown into their faces to keep them awake while working. He firmly believed that child labor was the foulest scar on the face of human capitalism.

Dr. Oswald covered exercise and popular fallacies in his book Physical Education. He says: “Unless we invent a labor-saving contrivance for every muscle of the human organism, there is not a day in the year nor an hour in the day when the practical business of life cannot be performed more easily and more pleasantly with the aid of a vigorous body. Both the physical and office workers need exercise.” Certain occupations like carpentry, masonry, farming, and woodcutting caused individuals to develop a stooped position. Hammering, sawing, pushing a plane, and wielding an axe all tended to develop the chest muscles and pull the shoulders forward—other occupations placed more strain on the arms, others on the back. People engaging in considerable physical exertion were generally more well-developed in particular areas. Then, there were those occupations that led to an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle. 

Despite the mighty work accomplished by Sylvester Graham, Russell Thacker Trall, James Jackson, and Charles E. Page, fresh air was still feared. Dr. Oswald continued to crusade for fresh air and ventilated rooms. Most people, he noted, slept with their bedrooms closed to exclude the “night air.” They banned the sweet south wind from their rooms, even on sweltering summer nights. Night air was thought to be a deadly foe to life and health. They never realized that “night air” and “day air” were the same. In addition to keeping windows and doors tightly shut, curtains, screens, and other methods were used to block the air. The idea that the sweet air of the summer night could be harmful was firmly embedded in the culture. Dr. Oswald notes, “Nine of the ten guests in an overheated ballroom or travelers in a crowded stage-coach would vehemently protest if someone ventured to open a window after sundown, no matter how glorious the night or how oppressive the stench of the closed space.”

It was firmly believed that cold night air would result in illnesses such as colds, La Grippe, bronchitis, pneumonia, and rheumatism. Physicians especially did not allow fresh air in the sick room. The warning of Dr. Russell Thacker Trall that the “lack of oxygen to the body is in itself a state of potential disease” went unheeded by the profession.

Dr. Oswald also believed in the tremendous nutritional value of grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Supplemented with nuts, they formed the ideal diet for humanity. All fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins and mineral salts and are especially valuable in preventing or remedying deficiency “diseases.” He says, “From May to September, fresh fruit and vegetables should be a major basis of our diet.” He believed we should consume only simple whole foods.

Another area of focus for Dr. Oswald was stimulants to the human body, which he believed were poisonous. The taste of the first drink, smoke, snuff, or chew, was horrible, and the body reacted negatively to the toxins in the poison. Dr. Oswald taught that these substances were addictive and usage was challenging to break. Continued use not only stresses the body and decreases immunity but also reduces the vital life force, resulting in a perfect storm for illness.

An old Spanish proverb states that keeping the devil out is much easier than turning him out. Dr. Oswald states, “A frequently overlooked issue of addictive behavior is its progressiveness. Abstinence is easier than so-called temperance. The original small amount of the stimulant becomes insufficient to satisfy the cravings; this leads to increased excesses. Coffee, tea, and tobacco paved the way for opium in the East and alcohol in the West.”

Teachings

Dr. Oswald followed five basic rules regarding food.

• Rule 1. Eat only when hungry.
• Rule 2. Never eat when in pain, whether physical or mental, and never when feverish.
• Rule 3. Never eat during, before, or after significant physical exertion. Leisure time for digestion is essential. Dr. Oswald says, “Every hour you steal from digestion is reclaimed by indigestion.”
• Rule 4. Do not drink with meals.
• Rule 5. Thoroughly masticate and chew all food.

Another area of his focus was sleep. “Eight hours of sleep,” says Dr. Oswald, “is sufficient to restore the energy expended in an ordinary day’s work. Extraordinary efforts, emotional excitement, sensual excesses, or malnutrition (either by insufficient food or dyspeptic habits) induce a general lassitude–a warning that the organism is being overtaxed. Resting and consuming a healthy diet will soon restore the functional vigor of the system. However, during such periods of diminished activity, the allopathic physicians of the day taught that the vital powers could be rallied by drastic drugs or tonic beverages–in other words, by poisons.”

Dr. Oswald did not believe in medications or stimulants. “The effect upon the body of every drug or stimulant,” he shares, “is strictly that of a poison.” Although the physician imagines that he is “aiding and assisting nature,” he is, in fact, simply wasting and destroying the body’s reconstructive and recuperative powers. Dr. Oswald rightly stated, “Diseases plead for desistance, rather than assistance. The discovery of the cause is the discovery of the remedy.”

Dr. Oswald spent considerable time observing his patients and their family’s general lack of health and wellness. He stated, “Many thousands of women die in childbirth every year. Many more die from conditions associated with pregnancy and birth. These facts indicated the deplorable physical condition of women. How can such women give birth to healthy offspring?” Dr. Oswald observed, “The healthiest infants can only be birthed by women of the highest physiological excellence.”

Many infants during the 1800s died before their first year. Dr. Oswald shared, “Infancy should be a period of exceptional health.” He noted that the offspring of other mammals began infancy in a generally healthy state. Yet our children seem to experience significant illness and mortality during these formative years, and the survival rate was bleak. He noted, “Statistics show that men of thirty have more hope to reach old age than a newborn child has to reach the end of its first year.”

A firm believer in breastfeeding, Dr. Felix Oswald declared in his book Physical Education that “the appearance of the eye-teeth (cuspids) and lesser molars mark the beginning of the period when healthy children may be gradually introduced to a semi-fluid vegetable substance. Till then, mother’s milk should be the only form of sustenance.” He felt that feedings should not be forced. He thought that the chief cause of digestive disorders and other complaints grew out of continuous overfeeding. The habit of feeding babies every two hours during the day and every time they wake up or cry is ruinous. He stated, “Such feeding overworks the baby’s digestive organs and introduces an excess of food into the alimentary tract to ferment and poison the child. It weakens and sickens them, producing diarrhea, colic, skin eruptions, and more serious disorders.”

Dr. Oswald considered “involuntary overfeeding” among the chief causes of gluttony. “Overzealous mothers,” he said, “often overfeed their babies till they sputter and spew.” He also disparaged forcing children to eat particular foods.” Overeating soon becomes an abnormal habit. He taught, “Avoid pungent spices and force-feeding children against their will. However, healthy food options can be enjoyed without harmful consequences.” – Quote Physical Education, p. 58-59. 

Meal time should be a time of tranquility. Genuine hunger should be the body’s signal that food is needed, and only then should food be consumed. Hurried eating or with a neurotic compulsion was extremely unhealthy, leading to gastric distress.

He continued, “To the palate of a child, narcotic “stimulants” are bitter; alcohol is burning and acrid; tobacco nauseous; mineral poisons bitter; the taste of rum, beer, hasheesh, and opium are violently repulsive. In the mouth of a healthy child, rum is like liquid fire; tea and coffee, bitter decoctions; tobacco fumes revolt the stomach of the novice. Few smokers can forget the effects of the first attempt at tobacco–and the body’s revolt against it.” Dr. Oswald said: “Only blind deference to the example of his elders will induce a boy to accustom himself to such toxins; if he were left to the guidance of his instincts, intoxication would be anything but an insidious vice.”– Physical Education, p. 51.

During his travels, Dr. Oswald lived with other cultures and witnessed various child-rearing practices. He noticed that Indian babies rarely cry. They are neither swaddled nor cradled but crawl freely and sleep in the dry grass or on the fur-covered floor of the wigwam. He felt that tight swaddling was downright torture. He noted that healthy babies do not cry except from cold, heat, pain, discomfort (e.g., diaper pins, wet diapers, folds in the clothing, tight bands, etc.), or hunger. He observed that the baby who persistently cries is usually sick. He stated, “To ensure the highest possible excellence in their children’s health, wise parents will supply them with good nutrition, sunshine, sleep, vigorous exercise, fresh air, and all other conditions essential to their growth and development.”

Oswald was not only a naturalist, but he was a historian. He studied the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and the cultures of Greece and Rome. History testifies that the one-meal-a-day or two-meals-a-day systems were generally practiced among ancient peoples and primitive tribes. The Tuareg, nomads living in Targa, ate their main meal in the evening, often having only one meal daily. In Scotland, several hundred years ago, the practice was to take only two meals a day, at about nine in the morning and five or six in the evening. The Bible recognizes two meals a day. Herodotus, a Greek historian and geographer, shares that the ancient Tyrrhenians (Etruscans) also had two frugal meals daily, with the chief meal eaten in the evening just before sunset. 

“Dr. Felix L. Oswald said: “For more than a thousand years, the one-meal system was the rule in countries that could raise armies of men, every one of whom would have made his fortune as a modern athlete—men who marched for days under a load of iron (besides clothes and provisions) that would stagger a modern man. Even here, abstinence from food is easier than temperance. For twenty-three hours each day, it is far easier to abstain from food (though not from water) than to begin eating and stop in time.” Present-day Americans’ eating practices confirm Dr. Oswald’s statement. Most find it difficult to stop eating once they have started.

Man tends to abstain from food when under great emotional distress or physical illness. Although it is common to force-feed patients, it should be avoided at all costs. Man instinctively fasts under certain conditions, as do animals, and this instinctive abstinence, if not interrupted, will prove very beneficial. Indeed, Dr. Oswald’s experience has proven this to be accurate within his practice.

After fasting has begun, the bowels practically cease functioning and rest. Dr. Oswald stated, “The colon contracts and the smaller intestines retain all but the most irritating ingesta.” Sometimes, they will continue to move regularly for the first three or four days to clean out the solid wastes. The stomach, intestines, and colon are given complete rest by fasting and can repair damaged structures. Piles, proctitis, colitis, appendicitis, enteritis, enteric fever (typhoid), gastritis, etc., speedily recover under the fast. The alimentary tract becomes practically bacteria-free, and the small intestines become sterile. A week of fasting is required to result in a complete disappearance of all germs from the stomach. Fasting is the quickest means of remedying bacterial decomposition in the digestive tract. 

During a fast, the body tears down its defective parts and rebuilds anew when eating is resumed. As Dr. Felix Oswald stated, “Nature employs the long-desired need of the body to “clean house” during a fast. Accumulations of tissues are evaluated and analyzed, and the discarded wastes are eliminated.” 

Although the digestive system has no work to do during a fast, there is no reduction in the work of the excretory system. Initially, the liver and kidneys do more work. “As the body utilizes its nutritive reserves to sustain its functioning tissues, stored toxins are released into the circulation. The amount excreted is far more significant than can be reasonably expected. Oswald stated, “Fasting is a great system-renovator. Ten days of fasting during the year will purify the blood and eliminate the accumulated poison more effectively than a hundred bottles of “restorative” bitters.”

Fasting was generally not accepted by allopathic physicians. In 1859, a physician accused Hygienists of starving their patients to death. This accusation indicates that allopathic physicians did not understand the use of the fast, which was accepted and practiced by hygienists. The medical profession had truly instilled the fear of starvation in the general population.”

Exercise was another focus throughout Dr. Oswald’s career. He noted, “Civilization exempts many from physical labor while overworking others.” “Wealth removes,” he said, “the objective necessity of physical exercise, but the overall necessity still remains. The amount of exercise needed for health and wellness depends on the endurance and strength of the subject. It is a safe rule to discontinue exercising when muscles become too tired to perform vigorously. 

Exercise should not be indulged in for at least an hour after eating. Dr. Oswald observes: “Animals rest after repletion, and some of them never sleep till they have a good meal to digest.” Digestion is best during rest and sleep; physical activity impedes it. In his book Physical Education, Dr. Oswald said: “Physical vigor is the basis of all bodily welfare and a foundation of permanent health. A man becomes half sick without the stimulus of physical exercise.”

Another observation that Dr. Oswald noted was getting outside in the sunshine. He believed there seemed to be a relationship between the sun and digestion. If a man is denied sunshine for a lengthy period, digestion and assimilation become weak and imperfect. The body should be exposed daily to the sun’s direct rays, and sunshine should be an integral part of life. 

Certain preventive measures are essential when beginning sunbathing. Untanned (etiolated) skin is easily burned by the sun, so the initial exposure periods should be short. As a rule, it is safe to begin with five minutes of exposure on the front surface of the body and five minutes on the back. This time may be increased by one minute on each side each day until a total exposure time of thirty minutes on each side is reached.

Natural hygiene is solidly built on the foundations of the great pioneers who laid down the basic principles of this art of everyday living. It teaches that good health is a composite of many factors, including beauty, grace, strength, and vitality. Good health is “wholeness,” and it is achieved only when all parts of the body, mind, and soul are “at ease.”

Notable Achievements

Notable Achievements

Felix Leopold Oswald was a physician, naturalist, secularist, and freethought writer. He supported natural hygiene, a movement that advocated fasting, vegetarian dieting, pure water, clean air, and exercise, and was influenced by Sylvester Graham‘s writings and principles.

His scientific contributions to the Popular Science Monthly brought him prominent public notice. In a short time, he began writing for the American Free Thought Press. His literary works found their way into magazines and papers in Germany, England, France, and the US, particularly on science and nature topics. He was a prolific writer and was published in the Popular Science magazine, The Monist journal, The Open Court journal, and the North American Review. About this time, Bernarr Macfadden started the journal Physical Culture, which, at first, was essentially Hygienic and was regularly contributed to by Dr. Felix Oswald.

Among the books he authored are Nature’s Household Remedies (1890), Physical Education (1882), Vaccination and Crime (1901), The Poison Problem (1887), Fasting, Hydrotherapy and Exercise (1901). 

Learn more from: (Read direct excepts)

• Lennon, J., Taylor, S. (1996). The Natural Hygiene Handbook. National Health Association, Youngstown, OH.
  
• Graham, S., Trall. R., Shelton, H. (2009). The Greatest Health Discovery. Youngstown, OH. National Health Association. 

• Shelton, Herbert. (1931). The Hygienic Care of Children. Youngstown, OH. National Health Association.
  
• Shelton, Herbert. (1934). The Science and Fine Art Fasting – The Hygienic System: Volume III National Health Association, Youngstown, OH.

• Shelton, Herbert. (1934). The Science and Fine Art of Natural Hygiene – The Hygienic System: Volume I. National Health Association, Youngstown, OH.

• Shelton, Herbert. (1935). The Science and Fine Art of Food and Nutrition – The Hygienic System: Volume II. National Health Association, Youngstown, OH.
  
• Shelton, Herbert. (1964). Fasting Can Save Your Life. Youngstown. National Health Association.
  
• Shelton, Herbert. (1968). Health for the Millions. Youngstown, OH. National Health Association. 

• Shelton, Herbert. (1968). Natural Hygiene: The Pristine Way of Life. Youngstown, OH. National Health Association.

• Shelton, Herbert. (1971). Exercise! Youngstown, OH. National Health Association.

• Shelton, Herbert. (1974). Fasting For Renewal of Life. Youngstown. National Health Association

• Trop, Jack. (1961). You Don’t Have to Be Sick. New York: Julian Press. 

The NHA wishes to remind the readers that nothing in this or other publications is intended to constitute medical treatment or advice. Readers should further be aware that in several areas, previous publications do not reflect the NHA’s current teachings or health approaches in several areas.

Our Mission

The mission of the National Health Association is to educate and empower individuals to understand that health results from healthy living. We recognize the integration of all aspects of health: personal, environmental, and social.

We communicate the benefits of a plant-based diet, exercise and rest, a healthy environment, psychological well-being, and fasting when indicated.