The Story of our Health Message

Dr. Jackson at Dansville, New York

In 1858 Dr. Jackson leased for three years, and then purchased, a water cure establishment located at Dansville, New York. This he enlarged and transformed into an institution for the rational care of the sick, where he might treat them in harmony with these principles. Because of its location, it was named “Our Home on the Hillside.” A woman physician, Dr. Harriet Austin, an adopted daughter, was associated with him in the institution and in the editorial work on a monthly magazine, The Laws of Life. Dr. Jackson wrote a number of books, besides pamphlets and tracts, and lectured in many places. It is probable that he, more than any other single individual, exercised a wide-spread influence in behalf of early hygienic reform in the United States. SHM 34.3

Dr. R. T. Trail (1812-1877) was another physician who entirely discontinued the use of drugs in his practice. His emergence as a health reformer preceded by a few years that of Dr. Jackson. Of Dr. Trail and his associates in this field, a physician writing in 1871 says in a retrospective view of the progress of reform: SHM 34.4

“Twenty-five years ago Drs. Jennings, Trail, and Shew were about the only men of science who dared openly to question the utility of drugs or to advocate the simple laws of health. ... Drugopathy seemed to becloud all light and weigh down all hope. At that time the laborers, including writers and speakers, were not over half a dozen; while now, they are counted by hundreds. Then, but few would listen, or read, or believe; while now, by a large and increasing class of the best minds in our country, no lectures elicit more attention, nor matter is read with so much interest, as hygienic literature. ... Then, there were no facilities for a sound education as to the nature of disease or its true remedy; while now, and for years past, Dr. Trall has been conducting with marked success his college, chartered by the legislature of New York, and fully authorized to confer diplomas as other like institutions.”—W. Perkins, M.D., in The Health Reformer, March, 1871, pp. 185, 186. SHM 35.1

The Water Cure Journal

In 1845 the voice of the hydropathic movement in the United States began to be heard in a monthly periodical known as The Water Cure Journal and Herald of Reform, which, according to its claims, was “devoted to physiology, hydropathy, and the laws of life.” Its objective was “to promulgate the philosophy and practice of hydropathy; embracing the true principles of health and longevity, together with directions for the application of water, air, exercise, and diet, to all the various diseases with which mankind are affected.” SHM 35.2

By 1851 the journal was enlarged and improved. In its twenty-four pages were departments on food and diet, physical exercise, and other important features relating to health. By the end of the same year its editors boasted a circulation of 30,000 copies. They claimed that more than a thousand allopathic physicians were subscribers, and that many of these were, when sick, resorting to hydropathic institutions for treatment. The Water Cure Journal, December, 1851, pp. 161, 162. Of such institutions, there were advertised or mentioned in The Water Cure Journal no fewer than fifty, each one being headed by a medical doctor. The “oldest and most extensive” of them was conducted by Dr. Trail himself in New York City. Ibid., September, 1852, p. 73. The editorial page of The Water Cure Journal was filled with articles by Dr. Trall, who was the principal contributor. Other articles are signed by such writers as Drs. William Alcott, Joel Shew, J. C. Jackson, T. M. Antisell, O. M. Gleason, E. A. Kittredge, and T. L. Nichols. SHM 35.3

The last named, with his wife, Mrs. Gove Nichols, who was a former schoolteacher, opened in New York City (September, 1851) the American Hydropathic Institute, which was established for “the instruction of qualified persons of both sexes, in all branches of a thorough medical education, including the principles and practice of water cure, in acute or chronic diseases, surgery, and obstetrics.” Ibid., 11:91, April, 1851. Three or four years later this gave way to the Hygieo-pathic Medical School, which was headed by Dr. Trail. A charter from the New York legislature empowered the school to confer upon its graduates the title of doctor of medicine. The students were taught to discard all drugs and to rely entirely upon natural remedies. In 1867 the work was transferred from New York City to Florence Heights, New Jersey, where it functioned for several years under the name of the Hygieo-Therapeutic College. The enrollment was not large, for only twenty students were graduated at the end of the twentieth term of six months, in 1870. The Health Reformer, July, 1870, p. 3. But the graduates year by year spread the principles wherever they located for practice. SHM 36.1

One of the textbooks used in the training of the medical students in these early educational medical institutions was a comprehensive work of 960 pages, The Hydropathic Encyclopedia, prepared by Dr. Trail in 1851. It ran through several editions and found its way into many homes, where it helped greatly in educating the public in physiology, hygiene, and the rational care of the sick. SHM 36.2