Not alone in the field of hydrotherapy and rational methods of treatment of disease was the foundation laid for reform. The same is true in the field of temperance and of diet.
In 1785 there appeared a pamphlet entitled "Inquiry Into the Effects of Ardent Spirits," penned by Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. A graduate of medical schools of Princeton, New Jersey, and Edinburgh, Scotland, the author had attained a position of eminence in the medical profession in the United States and was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.
"It is from this man, holding medals and honors from the crowned heads of Europe, whose activities covered so wide a field, whose interests were so humanitarian--it is from this man that the drinking customs of society received their first effectual rebuke. His pen, so busy on other themes also, arrested attention."--August F. Fehlandt, A Century of Drink Reform in the United States, 25. New York: Eaton and Mains, 1905.
An Appeal for Drastic Laws
Dr. Rush appealed to the government to pass drastic laws to limit the sale of ardent spirits and to bring into disgrace, even by abridging their civil rights, those who were convicted of habitual drunkenness. He appealed to the religious element to arouse. He urged:
"Ministers of the gospel, of every denomination in the United States, aid me with all the weight you possess in society, from the dignity and usefulness of your sacred office, to save our fellow men from being destroyed by the great destroyer of their lives and souls."--Ibid., 31.
This appeal produced no immediate results in organization, but it laid the foundations for what was to come later. This essay fell into the hands of Lyman Beecher, who became an ardent advocate of temperance reform. Some local so-called temperance societies were formed early in the century. In one instance the members, after signing the constitution, repaired to the tavern where they all drank together to set before the world an example of "true moderation."
Against the Use of Liquor at Funerals
In 1814 one of the first effective steps was taken in the United States in a protest against the use of intoxicating liquors at funerals. It was plausibly argued that the tendency of this practice was "to prevent the benefit that might otherwise be derived from providences, and the religious exercises of funeral occasions." Soon after this a further protest was made against "the evils of furnishing ardent spirits as an article of entertainment, especially to ministers of the gospel, a practice which was also common, and was thought by many to be a suitable expression of respect and kindness toward the ministerial office."--Permanent Documents of the American Temperance Society, 1:6, 7. New York: 1852.
In 1822 the tragic deaths of two victims of drunkenness furnished the text for two sermons, which were printed and circulated: the first, "On the Wretchedness of Intemperate Men"; the second, "On the Duty of Preventing Sober Men From Becoming Intemperate." It was argued that if, first, sober men could be prevented from becoming intemperate, then "when the present race of drunkards should be removed, the whole land might be free."--Ibid., 7.
Three years later a more effective argument, based upon a social-economic experiment, was made. A farmer in Massachusetts, owning about 600 acres of land and employing about ten men, became aware of the evils of drink and felt that he could no longer conscientiously continue to give the customary ration of ardent spirits to his employees. Calling them together, he kindly but firmly told them of his decision. Only one chose to leave. Some of those, however, who chose to remain through the season got liquor elsewhere, so it was not at once a matter of total abstinence.
The next season he determined to hire only those who would agree to drink no ardent spirits at all. His neighbors predicted that it would be impossible to hire such a group of workers, but in this they were mistaken. Then the neighbors were equally certain that the workmen would not render satisfactory service, and that his farm would run down for want of proper care. Again the results were entirely contrary to their expectations.
This story, briefly told, was published by the American Tract Society. The benefits both to the men themselves and to the farmer were set forth, with the conclusion that great good would ensue to the country should all the people of the United States adopt the plan of abstinence from the use of ardent spirits. ("A Well-Conducted Farm," American Tract Society, No. 176, 1825, 12 pp.)
The American Temperance Society Organized
While at this time there were individuals here and there who abstained from the use of ardent spirits, and who agreed not to furnish them to others, there was not at first any effective system of working or means of co-operation. A few of these reformers met together and began a correspondence with others, and these communications resulted in the organization of the American Temperance Society. It was their hope "by light and love to change the habits of the nation, with regard to the use of intoxicating liquors." The organization was effected in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 10, 1826, with the Honorable Marcus Morton as president and Justin Edwards as secretary.
The labor exerted by the charter members of the society and the enthusiasm of others who united with them were phenomenal. In less than a decade they were able to report approximately 5,000 local societies, with more than 1,000,000 members. Thousands of manufacturers of spirits had been led to cease their occupation, and over 6,000 retailers had discontinued its sale. Five thousand drunkards--supposed to be incurable--had been reclaimed. And 700 ships were being navigated without the use of spirits. Temperance journals were numerous. One, The Temperance Recorder, of Albany, New York, claimed a subscription list of 200,000 copies. The Moral Reformer 1:64, Wm. A. Alcott, editor. Boston: Light and Horton, 1836.
Several years passed, however, before "teetotalism" was generally adopted by the temperance societies. The inconsistency of taking only half measures was seen by many, and protests were made, but it was difficult to move the public to take the next logically advanced step. One correspondent of a temperance journal wrote in 1835:
"While attacking spirit drinking only, we are beating the air, exciting the laughter of our opponents, and sinking beneath their scorn. Who can answer the charges of inconsistency and hypocrisy incurred by this system? A gentleman drinks his half bottle of wine, but will not allow the poor man his two pennyworth of whisky, although it were reduced with water to half the strength of his wine."--The Temperance Journal, August, 1835. (Boston, Massachusetts.)
The difficulties encountered in making such appeals effective are indicated by the plaint of another would-be reformer: "'I am sorry,' says one, 'that the wine question should be agitated.' 'I regret it exceedingly,' says another. 'It is ruining the temperance cause,' says a third. 'O what a pity,' says a fourth, 'when we were going on so well.' 'I'll withdraw,' says a fifth, 'and have nothing more to do with them.'"--Ibid., Vol. 4, December, 1835.
By the middle of the century the initial activity and success of the temperance movement had greatly abated. Most of the temperance journals had only an ephemeral life. The local societies to a large degree ceased to function. It was to be a few decades before the more modern movement, fostered by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and its affiliated organizations, was to take shape. However, the effects of the earlier crusade were manifest in a greatly enlightened conscience, and the use of intoxicating drinks had lost caste among church members.
Vegetarianism and Diet Reform
Other movements were on foot looking to reforms in diet. In 1809 there appeared in England a book by William Lambe, M.D., bearing the quaint title of Reports of the Effects of a Peculiar Regimen in Scirrhous Tumours and Cancerous Ulcers. The peculiar regimen referred to consisted for the most part in the discontinuance of flesh food, and the free use of water.
"My opinion is," he wrote, "that no case which is curable can resist the effect of this regimen, if persevered in steadily for three complete years; at the same time that one year or a year and a half will commonly afford much relief."--P. 178.
A layman named John Frank Newton, who had from childhood suffered from a chronic disease, read the book and made a personal application of the experiment to his own diet. So gratifying were the results that he was impelled to write a book setting forth the benefits he had experienced. In closing the first part of this work, he gives more than a suggestion of the opposition those early advocates of vegetarianism encountered. He cautioned "him who may become a convert to this simple method of preventing disease, not to lose his temper when assailed in argument by his tenacious opponents with violence almost inexplicable; and to be firm and constant in his own practice, in contempt of all the means which will be resorted to, whether threats or persuasions, to turn him aside from his offensive purpose."--J. F. Newton, The Return to Nature, or a Defense of the Vegetable Regimen, 156, 157. London: J. McCreery, 1811.
Shelley, the Poet, Interested
Two years later the attention of the curious reader of a new book by P.B. Shelley, the poet, must have been arrested by the opening sentence: "I hold that the depravity of the physical and moral nature of man originated in his unnatural habits of life."--Vindication of a Natural Diet. London: F. Pitman, edition of 1884.
If he read the book to its conclusion, just before laying it down, he would have marked the following admonition:
"The proselyte to a simple and natural diet, who desires health, must from the moment of his conversion attend to these rules--
"Never take any substance into the stomach that once had life.
"Drink no liquid but water restored to its original purity by distillation."
The English poet was a personal friend of the Newton and Lambe families and had followed them in adopting a vegetarian diet. He acknowledged that he had drawn his arguments largely from the two former books, but his distinctive style, together with his literary reputation, tended to arouse a deeper interest in the subject.
The benefits to health experienced by those who discontinued the use of flesh as food led to a gradual increase of favor for the new regimen. But it was more than three decades after the publication of the treatise by Shelley that the Vegetarian Society was organized in England. The first meeting was held at Ramsgate, England, on September 30, 1847, with Joseph Brotherton, Esq., M.P., presiding. Of the 265 charter members 91 had abstained from meat less than 10 years, and 72 had been vegetarians for more than 30. Only one had a record of 40 years. (John Smith, Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food for Man, 190. New York: Fowler and Wells. From the second London edition, 1854.) In 1851 James Simpson, president of the society, reported nearly 700 adult members, 153 of whom had not tasted animal flesh for more than 20 years. He said further:
"These vegetarians belong indiscriminately to all trades and professions and have, as a body, always a much higher and more uniform standard of health than flesh eaters under similar general circumstances, and many of them have experienced a wonderful improvement in bodily vigor and mental vivacity."--R. T. Trall, M.D., in The Health Reformer, November, 1867, p. 20.
A Campaign for Diet Reform
An active campaign in behalf of diet reform and the adoption of a vegetarian diet was waged also in the United States. In 1835 Dr. William A. Alcott, of Massachusetts, began the publication of The Moral Reformer as an organ of healthful dietetics. Dr. Milo L. North, a practitioner of Hartford, Connecticut, had become interested in the matter of diet, especially of the reported benefits of vegetarianism. He compiled a questionnaire, asking those who had discarded the use of flesh foods to state the effect upon their strength, their mental acumen, their susceptibility to colds, and any ailments they might have had. He also asked an opinion as to whether either laborers or students, or both, would be benefited by the exclusion of animal food from their diet.
This questionnaire was published in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal and in The American Journal of Medical Science. Several other papers copied it. Thus it was circulated generally throughout the country. Replies were received from various parts of the United States, many of them from medical men. Dr. Alcott published various of these replies, with suitable remarks upon their almost unanimous agreement as to the benefits of the change they had made in their diet, thus building up a strong argument in favor of a vegetarian regimen. (Dr. William A. Alcott, Vegetable Diet, as Sanctioned by Medical Men, and Experience in All Ages. New York: Fowler and Wells, 1849.)
At the age of thirty Sylvester Graham (1794-1849) entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. In his early years he had been afflicted with tuberculosis. The state of his health was a factor in arousing his interest in the temperance cause which was then coming into prominence, and he made a special study of anatomy and physiology. In 1832 he began to lecture, advocating a comprehensive system of healthful living. At first he set forth these principles as a preventive of cholera, and it is said that "thousands followed his advice with beneficial results." He continued lecturing with great success and was always well received and very impressive. (Sylvester Graham, M.D., Lectures on the Science of Human Life, 3. New York: Fowler and Wells, 1851.) In 1833 he started a paper called The Graham Journal, which was published monthly in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1839 his lectures appeared in book form, and despite the size of the volume (650 pages) and the fact that it was printed in small type, it was widely read and discussed. (Ibid., 4.)
And so the terms "Grahamites," "Graham hotels," "Graham bread," and "bran eaters" were facetiously applied in reference to the followers of the popular lecturer, to the caravansaries where they might obtain the reform diet, or to the loaves made from unbolted flour. A well-selected dietary from vegetable products was set forth as an aid in maintaining health and longevity. In Graham's Lectures on the Science of Human Life, page 9, is quoted a review of his book:
"The bold originality of thought which pervades the lectures before us, and their perfect freedom from those errors into which most writers who treat on the same subject have fallen by following too implicitly the dogmas of their predecessors, constitute one of their chief recommendations."--Bell's Select Library and Eclectic Journal of Medical Science.
Toward Vegetarianism
William Metcalf, pastor of the Society of Bible Christians of Philadelphia (see note p. 49), was an enthusiastic vegetarian and, as early as 1821, the author of a booklet entitled "Abstinence From the Flesh of Animals," which was widely circulated and quite generally reviewed pro and con by the public press. History of the Philadelphia Bible Christian Church, 29. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1922. After corresponding with Dr. Graham, Dr. Alcott, and others who were leading out in diet reform, he initiated a convention of diet reformers in Clinton Hall, New York, May 15, 1850.
Here was launched the American Vegetarian Society, with Dr. Alcott as president; William Metcalf, corresponding secretary; and Dr. R.T. Trail, recording secretary. To give the society a voice, The American Vegetarian and Health Journal was issued, edited by Metcalf. Ibid., 43, 44. Because of lack of support the journal was suspended in 1854, but the vegetarian cause continued to be ably advocated in The Water Cure Journal, The Moral Reformer, and The Graham Journal.
At the fourth annual meeting of the society Horace Greeley presided as one of the chairmen. There were 350 persons in attendance, including Drs. James C. Jackson and R.T. Trall, also Mrs. Amelia Bloomer and Mrs. Susan B. Anthony. Ibid., 158, 159. Though not so large in membership as its counterpart in England, the society maintained a healthy existence until the death of Mr. Metcalf in 1854. (The Vegetarian Society of America was reorganized in Philadelphia, June 24, 1886. On November 2, on Wallace Street in that city, a reception was held by the society in honor of Dr. J.H. Kellogg of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, who delivered an address on the history of vegetarianism.)
Physiology in the Schools
Through the labors and influence of the foregoing and other reformers during the first half of the nineteenth century, a broad foundation was laid for a program of education in health principles. The introduction of the teaching of physiology in the public schools was one of the issues on which a long but finally successful fight was waged. In 1850 some progress was made when the legislature of Massachusetts passed a law providing for the teaching of physiology and hygiene in the public schools "in all cases in which the school committee shall deem it expedient." Provision was also made for all teachers thereafter to be examined "in their knowledge of the elementary principles of physiology and hygiene, and their ability to give instruction in the same."
The following year, however, the Committee on Education of that state was divided over the question of the purchase of the necessary anatomical diagrams for the use of common schools. After a lengthy argument the majority decided against it, expressing "doubts whether, out of 3,748 public school teachers, a hundred teachers can be found qualified to teach physiology," and urging that this subject give way to others "having a stronger demand upon the attention."
A minority of the committee made an eloquent and logical statement in protest against the decision of the majority in this matter. They made a plea for putting the study of physiology in the very forefront of the educational curriculum.
In their unsuccessful attempt to influence public opinion before it was ready for such a progressive move, they declared that the education of children was "commenced wrong, continued wrong, and ended wrong." The religious training was deemed of prime importance, then the moral, the intellectual, and lastly the physical. They urged the complete reversal of this order of instruction, asserting that the teaching of the mechanism of their bodies would be far more effectual in directing the young minds to the Creator than would "arguments on the questionable necessity of infantile regeneration."
"Rather let the mind remain a blank," they contended, "than make it a dyspeptic by prematurely feeding it with unintelligible dogmas. To educate the mind regardless of the body is like building a house without a foundation."--"Physiology in Schools--Progress of Public Sentiment," an editorial appearing in The Water Cure Journal, June, 1851.
Progress in Public Health Education
The education of the public in matters pertaining to health and hygiene continued to be fostered by the tireless and often unselfish efforts of enlightened lecturers and writers. Of the nature and influence of their work and of its importance in the cause of health reform, an experienced educator said in 1862:
"About twenty years ago Dr. Calvin Cutter began his career as a public lecturer upon the science of physiology. He was followed by T.S. Lambert and a multitude of others less known if not less useful. More recently the science has been extensively introduced and taught in our schools and seminaries, as one of the regular branches of study. The influence of this movement in the direction of health reform is incalculable."--J. C. Porter, professor of mathematics, Clinton Liberal Institute, New York, in The Laws of Life, November, 1862, p. 162.
In showing why the work of these physiologists was worthy of being rated as "by far the most important auxiliary of the hygienic reform," Professor Porter said further:
"They have taught the people the importance of bathing and exercise; they have inculcated useful lessons upon the choice and preparation of food, bringing the frying pans into ill repute, and doing no little damage to the trade in pork; they have borne strong and effectual testimony against the use of tobacco and intoxicating beverages; they have enlightened upon the habits of dressing, and have made corsets and thin soles a reproach to any lady; they have prevented more disease by the correction of private and social vice than all the doctors have cured since preaching began."--Ibid.
The knowledge of health principles disseminated by the printed page, by lectures, by the formation of health clubs, and by the teaching of children in the public schools was as leaven that, by 1863, was permeating society. Thus providentially was the way prepared for the great and important instruction of health reform that would become an integral part of the religious movement then arising with its divine commission to herald to the world a message designed to prepare a people "body, and soul, and spirit" for translation to heaven at the second advent of Christ.