The Story of our Health Message

A Summary of Three Years’ Work

At the twelfth annual meeting of the Health Reform Institute, held October 4, 1878, a comparative summary of three years’ work was presented, clearly indicating that the year 1876 had indeed marked the beginning of a new era in the growth and progress of the institution. The report for these three consecutive years (as published in the The Review and Herald, October 17, 1878) is as follows: SHM 218.2

From this time forward there was a constant and steady growth in the patronage of the sanitarium. A number of cottages were rented for the accommodation of patients, besides occasional additions for increasing facilities and room in the institution. By the latter part of 1883 so great was the embarrassment on account of insufficient accommodations for patients, that the board of directors authorized the construction of another one-hundred-foot five-story addition to the main building. SHM 218.3

The managers of the institution were now able to report that the debt incurred in the erection of the former building had been paid off. So great was the faith of the friends of the enterprise in its future success that within three weeks nearly two thirds the amount of stock required for the enlargement had been subscribed. SHM 219.1

With the completion of this addition, in 1885 the following words were written regarding the results of eighteen years of achievement: SHM 219.2

“This institution ... has grown to be the largest institution of its kind in the world. And if one seeks for more complete appliances and facilities for treating all manner of diseases, and a more intelligent application of them to the cases in hand, he must seek them on some other planet; for here we have the best that this one affords.”—Ibid., January 6, 1885. SHM 219.3

On returning from a visit to Europe, in the summer of 1883, where he visited leading medical institutions on the continent, the medical superintendent reported that he had found nothing of the kind superior to the sanitarium, and that “while many things had suggested themselves to him for information and adoption, he had found nothing to copy.”—Good Health, August, 1883. SHM 219.4