The Story of our Health Message

The Book “Physiology and Hygiene”

In reviewing the health campaign for this period, the issuance of a popular book entitled Physiology and Hygiene should not be passed by. The preparation of this book was undertaken not by a physician or a specialist in the field of medicine, but by a minister, and that, too, while he was serving in executive work as a conference president And here again we have a practical evidence of the seriousness with which the brethren at that time regarded the subject of health reform, considering it as a part of the very warp and woof of the advent message. In announcing his purpose to bring out such a book, Elder Loughborough thus states both his method of procedure and his aim in producing this much-needed instruction: SHM 169.5

“As I am not an M.D., I would say that this work will be drawn mainly from such works as Dr. Trall’s Cyclopedia, Graham’s Science of Human Life, Mrs. Taylor’s Know Thyself, Lambert’s Physiology, Hitchcock’s, Wilson’s, Cutter’s, Nichol’s, etc. Most of these works are too voluminous and expensive for many to purchase or peruse. We therefore design to collect from them and arrange that which we deem to be of the most practical benefit to the reader.”—The Review and Herald, November 20, 1866. SHM 170.1

With optimism he hoped to have the copy of his manuscript in the hands of the printers by January 1, 1867, and on this basis called for advance subscriptions. Two weeks after the expiration of this date, he published a note of apology to the subscribers and urged that they be patient, assuring them that he was devoting all his leisure time out of meetings to the writing of the book. “I must try to be hygienic myself, while writing,” he explained, “or I might write faster. But I do not esteem it my duty to put the work of two days into one, as I have sometimes done in the past.”—Ibid., January 15, 1867. SHM 170.2

As a matter of fact, the preparation of this book took about a year’s time. It had been undertaken by Elder Loughborough at the request of the board of the Health Reform Institute, and when it appeared, it was recommended by Dr. H. S. Lay as “being well adapted to the wants of the common people, and in accordance with the recognized principles of physiology, and of hygienic medication.”—Hand Book of Health; or a Brief Treatise on Physiology and Hygiene, p. iv. Battle Creek, Michigan: Steam Press, 1868. SHM 170.3

The book took the form of questions and answers. The various systems of the body were considered consecutively, and the suggestions regarding hygiene were blended with the physiology. There were 445 questions in its 205 pages of text. SHM 171.1

At the General Conference of 1868 the delegates recognized that although the ministers had been active in their teaching of the health reform principles, the subject demanded “labor and attention,” which the preachers could not “bestow in connection with their other arduous labors,” and it was voted that Dr. M. G. Kellogg, a recent graduate in medicine, “should labor in that department of the great work of preparation for the coming of the Son of man, by the counsel of the General Conference Committee.”—The Review and Herald, May 26, 1868. SHM 171.2

Having taken this glance at the nature of the health educational work that was undertaken by ministers and laymen, we now briefly review the development and vicissitudes of the Health Reform Institute during the first decade of its work. SHM 171.3