A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

What Did Adventists Know in 1863?

Certain exhibits are presented in support of the view that Adventists had considerable knowledge of health reform and practiced its principles prior to the health reform vision of June 6, 1863. Reference has been made to this in our general introductory statement. This premise puts under a cloud Ellen White’s clear-cut declarations relating to her knowledge in health lines prior to the vision. Seventh-day Adventists hold that it was the vision given to Ellen White in June, 1863, that led them to accept health reform. They hold that with a few notable exceptions church leaders and the rank and file of church members were by and large ignorant of and indifferent to the basic elements of physiology and nutrition. This is attested to by the witness of leading Adventists of that time. CBPH 47.18

In support of Prophetess of Health’s basic premise of a rather general knowledge of health reform on the part of Adventists prior to the vision, the following facts are cited: CBPH 47.19

Joseph Bates ... adopted Grahamism in 1843 and spent decades as a temperance crusader. John Loughborough took to eating Graham bread and reading the Water Cure Journal in 1848, after learning about health reform from an uncle in western New York. J. P. Kellogg, of Tyrone, Michigan—father of Merritt, John Harvey, Will Keith, and thirteen other children—raised his sizable brood by the Water Cure Journal and sent three of his older sons, including Merritt, to reform-minded Oberlin College—page 79 CBPH 47.20

Prophetess of Health contends that “All these men were closely associated with the Whites and undoubtedly spoke to them of their experiences in health reform” (p. 79). Others more or less familiar with aspects of health reform are noted. Among them Prophetess of Health says that “Uriah Smith’s sister Annie... spent several months at a water cure before her death in 1855” (p. 79). These exhibits are followed by reference to, “The unpublished diary of Mrs. Andrews [which] reveals that she and her husband [Elder J. N. Andrews] were routinely using water treatments in their home by the spring of 1863” (p. 88). CBPH 47.21

Reference is made to the Jackson article on diphtheria that was published in the The Review and Herald, February 17, 1863, and its publication is cited as “one of the first” indications of a health reform awakening. The reader is then informed that: CBPH 47.22

During the month of May, James White continued to focus on hygienic living in the Review and Herald with a note from Dio Lewis on dress reform and two extracts from Hall’s Journal of Health, one urging a meatless, low-fat diet during spring and summer, the other recommending two meals a day.—page 80. CBPH 47.23

The three items published in The Review and Herald, May, 1863, were very brief selections. Two were but half a column each and the third a little less than two columns. On the basis of the bits and pieces of health knowledge possessed by scattered Adventists, together with these few brief notes in the Review as well as the Jackson article on diphtheria, Prophetess of Health concludes that “by June of 1863, Seventh-day Adventists were already in possession of the main outlines of the health reform message” (pp. 80-81). It is then asserted: “What they now needed to become a church of health reformers was not additional information, but a sign from God indicating his pleasure” (p. 81). CBPH 47.24

But will a close look at the experiences and testimonies of the persons mentioned sustain these conclusions? CBPH 48.1

The argument that Seventh-day Adventists were “in possession of the main outlines of the health reform message” is not supported by the documents of the times. The fact that among the 3500 Adventists, records can be found of a dozen or so families that had at some time tried some phase of hydrotherapy, and had used Graham bread, or had discarded meat, or had read one of the health journals, comes far short of the picture of “Seventh-day Adventists” by June, 1863, “being in possession of the main outlines of the health reform message.” Of those referred to, five persons or families stand out: CBPH 48.2

Joseph Bates CBPH 48.3

John Loughborough CBPH 48.4

The J. P. Kellogg family CBPH 48.5

The J. N. Andrews family CBPH 48.6

Annie Smith CBPH 48.7

Annie Smith, after leaving the employment of the Review office in 1854 because of ill health, underwent hydropathic treatment. According to her mother, she felt better, but she “became satisfied that she was no better” and returned home to die of tuberculosis. CBPH 48.8

Joseph Bates, said to have “adopted Grahamism” (p. 79) nowhere in writing of his experiences refers to Graham as the source of his regimen. His health reform views stemmed from his own observations as a keen-minded sea captain. He took steps in healthful living, discarding various harmful habits in this order: CBPH 48.9

Alcoholic beverages, 1821 -1824 Tobacco, 1824 Tea and coffee, 1837 Meat, 1843 Butter, cheese, pies, and cakes, 1843 CBPH 48.10

He would hardly be one to speak with enthusiasm to the Whites of his views on health, as Prophetess of Health intimates, for, reported James White, he “did not mention his views of proper diet in public at that time nor in private unless interrogated upon the subject” (Life of Bates, p. 311). James White further reports that, “When many of his fellow laborers embraced the principles of health reform,” “he joined with great gladness of heart” (Ibid. 312). CBPH 48.11

J. N. Loughborough is cited as “eating Graham bread and reading the Water Cure Journal in 1848 after learning about health reform from an uncle in western New York” (p. 79). CBPH 48.12

Loughborough in recounting his experience in health reform in the The Medical Missionary, December, 1899, tells how in August, 1848, he visited his uncle and this uncle had secured a copy of the lectures of Sylvester Graham and had adopted the dietary program of using “bread and mush made from unbolted wheat meal.” John Loughborough was then 16 years of age. He continues: CBPH 48.13

About the same time I learned of Graham bread we secured some of the writings of O. S. and L. N. Fowler and their Water Cure Journal. The water cure of that time consisted almost exclusively of the use of cold water with vigorous exercise. An institution for such treatment was opened in Rochester, N.Y., and many persons were greatly benefited, especially those who had enough bodily vigor to “take a brisk walk of one to three miles” after a bath in ice-cold water; but with feeble patients—those whose vitality was insufficient to cause a reaction—the result was far different.... Cold water cannot relieve all the ills resulting from violation of nature’s laws. CBPH 48.14

He closes his article by stating: CBPH 48.15

To illustrate the meager instruction given in hygienic lines in those days, I will state that in 1850, when I began preaching, I had slight hemorrhages of the lungs. As a remedy for this difficulty, I was advised to use tobacco. I could not smoke a pipe, but I very soon contracted the habit of cigar smoking. Although we had some light as to good, wholesome bread and cold-water bathing, this resort to cigar smoking shows how vague were our ideas of healthful living—Medical Missionary and Gospel of Health 10:7, December 1899. CBPH 48.16

The fact that J. N. Loughborough really was not a health reformer until 1864 is evidenced by his statement appearing in the Review and Herald of December of that year. He depicts the steps he took: CBPH 48.17

Since the close of the tent season, I have accompanied Bro. and Sister White in their appointments In Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island. I can say for myself, that I have been greatly benefited in this trip, not only by their instruction in spiritual things, but also by the excellent information they imparted on health, diet, etc... CBPH 48.18

And here I would say, that the instruction I have received on health, I am trying to practice. For the short time I have been striving to live strictly in accordance with the laws of life, I have been greatly benefited. It is, however, about one year since I commenced a reform in relation to meat-eating. As I had been in the habit of using meat three times a day when I could get it, for the first two months I only ate meat twice a week. Then for a month once a week. Then for three months once a month. And for the last four months no meat has passed my lips. And for the last two months I have eaten but two meals a day. Never was sleep sweeter, or health better, or my mind more cheerful, since I first started in the service of God at the age of 17 years, than for the last two months. CBPH 48.19

With the short experience I have had, I would not, for any consideration, go back to the meat, spice, pepper, sweet cake, pickles, mustard, head acne, stomach-acne and gloom, and give up the good wholesome fruit, grain, and vegetable diet, with pure cold water as a drink, no headaches, cheerfulness, happiness, vigor and health. But I do not urge these things upon others, or judge them about their meat. But I do esteem it a privilege to tell them what a temporal blessing I have found in this direction.—The Review and Herald, December 6, 1864, 25:14. CBPH 48.20

So we would hardly be able to list Loughborough as one of the number of early health reformers who before June, 1863, undoubtedly spoke to James and Ellen White “of their experience in health reform.” CBPH 49.1

The Kellogg family: For the support of J. P. Kellogg, the father of John Harvey Kellogg, as one of a number of the early health reformers, the author states that “J. P. Kellogg raised his children” by the Water Cure Journal. The documentation cited is: “John Harvey Kellogg Autobiographical Memorial,” Oct. 21, 1938, and “My Search for Health,” Ms. Jan. 16, 1942. (JHK papers, Michigan Historical Collection). CBPH 49.2

The Kellogg family records reveal that shortly after the Water Cure Journal began publication (1846) the Kelloggs became subscribers. This was a widely distributed journal. The Kelloggs made an effective use of its methods when their children were attacked with measles. They may have put into practice other hydropathic methods, but we lack information that it made them advocates of health reform in its broader sense. CBPH 49.3

That the vegetarian dietary program had not been adopted by the family is evidenced by the fact that John Harvey, who was born in 1853, recalled that as a child two foods appealed to him particularly—ox tails richly browned in the oven and the candy his father kept in one corner of the store. The Kellogg cellar even contained a keg of ale to be used “for weak stomach.” (See The Medical Missionary, March, 1905, 14:82. Quoted in Richard W. Schwarz’ dissertation John Harvey Kellogg, p. 10.) CBPH 49.4

It would have been possible for the Kelloggs to speak to the Whites “of their experience in health reform” (p. 79), but if they did it must have been limited to a very few features. John Harvey Kellogg writing in 1890 in a statement quoted earlier, referred to Ellen White’s first writings on health. Said he: “At the time the writings referred to first appeared, the subject of health was almost wholly ignored, not only by people to whom they were addressed, but by the world at large” (J. H. Kellogg, Preface to CTBH, p. iii). CBPH 49.5

J. N. Andrews, is the one remaining significant witness cited. Prophetess of Health states: CBPH 49.6

It is not clear how or when he first learned of Our Home, [the Jackson institution].... The unpublished diary of Mrs. Andrews reveals that she and her husband were routinely using water treatments in their home by the spring of 1863, and that in January, 1864, John’s co-laborers offered to send him to Our Home for a few weeks of rest and treatment.—p. 88. CBPH 49.7

Andrews declined, “but a few months later sent his badly crippled six-year-old son Mellie (Charles Melville) for a fifteen week stay” (Ibid). CBPH 49.8

The J. N. Andrews family offers an excellent example of the Adventist progress toward health reform in these years. CBPH 49.9

Mrs. Andrews, the former Angeline Stevens, has left a diary for the years 1859 through 1864. The diary opens with the announcement that the family had just butchered a pig. A little later in 1860 we find Mrs. Andrews recording the death of a neighbor: CBPH 49.10

Canon Beeman died this morning about 5. He had had a sore throat for some days. Yesterday he had it lanced.... About 11 his wife gave him a dose of morphine which the Dr. had ordered. He immediately went to sleep from which he never woke. Some attribute this sudden death to one thing, some another. The doctor calls it the putrid sore throat. CBPH 49.11

No health reformer would have been in doubt about the cause of death. Yet Mrs. Andrews gives no indication that she knew. CBPH 49.12

A week or so later Angeline’s father, Mr. Stevens, had a sore knee. He was treated with cloths wet in salt water to his knees and cloths wet in smart weed poultice to his feet. CBPH 49.13

In the fall of 1862, the little daughter, Mary, contracted whooping cough. Her mother on several occasions wrapped the baby in wet sheets in an apparent attempt to reduce her fever. The local doctor was called in two or three times and administered a hodge-podge of poisons and herbal remedies. Among these were ipecac, nitre, and quinine, the latter given as a “tonic.” CBPH 49.14

Ipecac was a harmless enough emetic, and one can still buy it in the local drugstore. However, to force a weak, sick infant to vomit up the little nourishment she had been able to eat is certainly questionable therapy! CBPH 49.15

Nitre, or salt-peter, was a mineral and a poison which depressed the heart beat and undoubtedly made its contribution to the deaths of many patients. CBPH 49.16

Quinine was, of course, a specific for malaria. Once physicians discovered this, they began to prescribe it for everything. But quinine had side effects: CBPH 49.17

In moderate doses it weakened the heart and pulse, caused gastro-intestinal irritations, and produced nervousness and giddiness. These side effects were accentuated by repeated doses of the drug. In large doses—and physicians were often extraordinarily liberal in their dosage of quinine—it produced... ringing of the ears, and in severe instances, deafness, blindness, and other toxic effects.—William G. Rothstein, American Physicians in the Nineteenth Century, p. 52. CBPH 49.18

In her desperation Mrs. Andrews was willing to try anything. She secured a recipe for syrup from her sister in Battle Creek. After some searching, she found the ingredients and, as the story is told in the diary, “We gave her a dose immediately. I think Mary has never been sicker than this afternoon. Medicine has no effect to vomit her as I supposed it would.” CBPH 49.19

When Angeline’s mother was sick, she received similar treatment: “Gave her ipecac and lobelia until she vomited.” The mother got temporary relief, but the next day she was very sick again, and this time the neighbors were called in to anoint her with oil and pray for her. CBPH 49.20

All this took place in Iowa. Meanwhile, J. N. Andrews was working primarily in New York. Finally, in February of 1863, Angeline takes her children and moves to Rochester to be with her husband. When she arrives on February 17, John is just recovering from diphtheria. This is particularly interesting since the Review published that very day carried a reprint of an article by Dr. James C. Jackson recommending water treatment for diphtheria. James White endorsed the article with an editor’s note. From this point on, we find the Andrews family showing more interest in “packs” and “warm baths” in the treatment of illness. CBPH 50.1

That the other features of reform advocated by Jackson were not observed is made clear from several of J. N. Andrews’ articles appearing in the The Health Reformer, July, 1869, pp. 44-45, and March, 1872, pp. 76-77. The July, 1869, article opens with: CBPH 50.2

The subject of health reform has engaged my earnest attention for more than five years. During this entire period of time I have endeavored, as a matter of conscience, strictly to regard and live out the principles of this noble reform. As its effects upon myself have been very marked, and such that all with whom I have been associated for this period have observed them, I take pleasure in briefly stating my own experience.—p. 8. CBPH 50.3

In his February, 1872, article he pinpoints the beginning of the health reform program in their home as nine months after the health reform vision of June 6, 1863; “It was in March, 1864, that myself and wife decided to adopt the principles of health reform.” CBPH 50.4

The following is significant on this point: “At the time that the subject of health reform first arrested my attention, one circumstance contributed to fix its importance in my mind, and establish it permanently in my esteem” (Ibid, p. 9). CBPH 50.5

This, he points out, was the recovery of his son from a serious leg difficulty, an experience several times referred to. A clear answer to his prayer seemed to come in the command impressed on his mind: “Send the child to Dansville,” and Andrews comments: “I had then very little knowledge of that institution, but what I had learned of the principles of health reform caused me to regard the method of treating disease there in use, as worthy of confidence” (The Health Reformer, July, 1869, 4:9). CBPH 50.6

Resolved to adopt the full Dansville program in their own home for the benefit of the child on his return, which they did, Andrews wrote: “Such was our beginning in earnest to be health reformers” (Ibid). (emphasis supplied). Andrews then described the surprises which came to him as the result of the change in the way of life, quite unlooked for on his part. He closes with these words: CBPH 50.7

“I find myself possessed of excellent health, which, under God, I owe to the light on the health reform. Thank God that I have ever seen its light” (Ibid.). CBPH 50.8

In the four-article series “My Experience in Health Reform” published in 1871 and 1872, he goes more into detail and mentions: CBPH 50.9

We had no Health Reformer then to give instruction.... I had seen some numbers of the Laws of Life, and I knew that there was a hygienic institution at Dansville, N.Y., but I had so little knowledge of the hygienic system in general, and of this institution in particular, that I was not by any means decided that this was the only system to be relied upon for the preservation or recovery of health—The Health Reformer, February 1872, 7:44, (emphasis supplied). CBPH 50.10

In his detailed description of their March, 1864, turn around, Andrews mentions putting away from their table “spice, pepper, vinegar,” “butter, meat, fish, and substituted graham flour for fine flour.” They took pains to secure “plenty of good fruit, vegetables, grains,” and “used some milk and a very little salt” (The Health Reformer, March, 1872, 7:76-77). CBPH 50.11

These clear-cut, direct references disclose the fact that until March, 1864, the Andrews family had but little knowledge of the Dansville institution and Dr. Jackson. On the main features of health reform Elder Andrews had seen a few issues of the Laws of Life, but most certainly had not adopted any part of the Jackson program unless it be water treatments, but nowhere does Andrews mention even these. They are mentioned by his wife in her diary for 1860-1864, but apparently Graham had had little or no influence on them. Could it be that the Andrews experience typified that of other Sabbathkeeping Adventists? The contemporary records would seem to indicate so. Can the reader of Prophetess of Health gain a true picture of the state of Adventist knowledge and practice of health reform when such relevant evidence as presented above concerning that knowledge and practice is omitted? CBPH 50.12

We have heard from the principal witnesses cited by Prophetess of Health in support of its basic premise, that is: “By June, 1863, Seventh-day Adventists were already in possession of the main outlines of health reform.” Their full testimony comes far short of sustaining the all-important premise. CBPH 50.13