The Story of our Health Message

The Institution Opened

At the time appointed the institution was opened for the reception of patients. Dr. Lay and Dr. Phoebe Lamson constituted the medical staff. So with “two doctors, two bath attendants, one nurse (untrained), three or four helpers, one patient, any amount of inconveniences, and a great deal of faith in the future of the institution and the principles on which it was founded” (Medical Missionary, January, 1894) was begun an institution destined to become world famous, and whose cumulative influence cannot be estimated. Under the fitting heading of “A Great Fact Accomplished,” Elder White wrote: SHM 153.2

“We have only to look back to our Conference in May last, less than four short months ago, for the time when this matter first began to take practical shape among our people. Now we behold an elegant site secured, buildings ready for operation, a competent corps of assistants on the ground, two numbers of a health journal already issued, with a subscription list that has doubled within the past few weeks, a sum bordering on eleven thousand dollars already subscribed for stock in the enterprise, and the institute opened and operations actually commenced. In no enterprise ever undertaken by this people has the hand of the Lord been more evidently manifested than in this thing. And we here enter our record of gratitude for the great fact accomplished, the great step taken in the right direction.”—The Review and Herald, September 11, 1866. SHM 153.3

Progress in the work of adequate preparation for the giving of treatments was reported during the two months after the formal opening of the institution. A windmill was erected, which was capable, with a moderate breeze, of pumping water from a well to an elevation of eighty feet at “the rate of a barrel in from three to five minutes.” Directly over the bathrooms was the receiving tank from which water was drawn into a smaller heating tank and through pipes from both tanks to the bathroom below. This made it possible to temper the water “to any degree of heat required for the various baths to be given.” Ibid., October 2, 1866. SHM 154.1

Two months after the opening of the institution, Dr. Lay reported its prosperity as “far beyond our most sanguine expectations.” Patients had been received from “Canada, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa,” and it had become necessary to secure rooms nearby for such as were able to walk a short distance, leaving the rooms in the main building for the accommodation of the more feeble ones. The Health Reformer, November, 1866. SHM 154.2