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A NEW IDEA

A NEW IDEA image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
September
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A NEW IDEA

And the Interesting Story of Its Development

Probably there are not a hundred persons in the United States who are familiar with the interesting history of the development of the system which has come to be distinguished as the "Battle Creek Idea," though no longer represented in Battle Creek alone, branches having sprung up in many places, while a knowledge of the principles of this remarkable system has become quite widely diffused throughout the civilized world.

The "Battle Creek Idea" is not a fad nor a mushroom growth. It is a scientific system which traces the main roots of its origin far back into the centuries. It is not the product of a single brain, but of hundreds and thousands of tireless workers and thinkers who have garnered the choicest fruits of generations of experience and have collated the results of centuries of scientific research.

A volume might be filled with the interesting story of the development of this wonderful work which has recently been made conspicuous by the burning of the main buildings of the Battle Creek Sanitarium last year and the recent dedication of the magnificent new building which has been erected to take the place of the burned structures, but we have room only for a few choice bits of this interesting history.

The "Battle Creek Idea" In Ancient Greece.

Twenty-four centuries ago there lived in Greece a man whose master mind recognized great truths and formulated mighty principles, the influence of which has grown with the lapse of time until today their importance is universally recognized. This man, Pythagoras, numbered among his disciples such men of genius as Socrates and Plato. It was he who first conceived the idea of the rotundity of the earth and of its revolution about the sun.

The First Health Community.

Pythagoras, this great of Grecian philosophers, established a health colony which he called Crotona. There he gathered about him hundreds of disciples to whom he taught the simple rules of life which he himself followed. These comprised abstinence from all unwholesome foods, especially meats, for Pythagoras considered the slaughter of animals as sacrilege. There were no slaughter houses or butcher shops in Crotona. No roasts, spareribs, beefsteaks or corpses of any kind ever appeared upon the table of a Pythagorian. Temperance in all things, an active, out of door life, simple dress, purity and uprightness in conduct were strictly enjoyed by this prophet of a new truth, for the decadence of Greece had already begun. Unfortunately the doctrines of Pythagoras were little appreciated. The members of his health colony were massacred by their ignorant and degenerate countrymen, but his noble philosophy survived.

Plutarch, the famous biographer; Seneca, the noble old Roman; the Latin poet Ovid and many of the early church fathers accepted and actively promulgated the teachings of Pythagoras, as many moderns have done. Byron, during the better portions of his life and when doing the literary work which made him famous, strictly followed "the simple life" in diet and other respects. In writing to his publisher he once remarked, "I stick to Pythagoras." Shelley, Goldsmith and other famous English poets also accepted the teachings of Pythagoras, which are at the present time taught and practiced in the strictest manner by the famous Russian writer and reformer, Count Leo Tolstoi.

"The Brook Farm Experiment."

Half a century ago there gathered on a little farm not far from New Haven, Conn., the most remarkable coterie of men and women who have ever been associated in any community in modern times. George Ripley, the most famous Unitarian minister of New England at that period, was the founder of the community. The practical realization of the Pythagorian philosophy was was the central idea of the Brook Farm experiment. Among the 140 members of the community, most of whom afterward became eminent in various professions and callings, were Emerson, the philosopher; Bronson Alcott, the transcendentalist; Thoreau, the interpreter of nature; Margaret Fuller, the educational reformer; Charles Dana, the founder of the New York Sun, and Hawthorne, one of the greatest literary lights of the century. The Brook Farm experiment failed for lack of financial management, but the ideals survived.

The Wonderful Discovery of a Silesian Peasant.

A little less than 100 years ago a fourteen-year-old peasant boy, who was barely able to read and had not been taught to write, while engaged in cutting wood on a mountain near his home, observed a wounded deer bathing its injured leg in one of the numerous springs which abound in that particular region. Day after day the deer came and bathed the damaged parts until entirely healed of its injury. Priessnitz soon after suffered a severe accident from which the physicians who were consulted declared he could not recover. He tried the deers remedy, applying water by means of wet cloths placed over the injured parts, and in a few weeks was quite restored to health. He induced others to try his remedy and invented many different way of applying water by means of baths, douches, packs, compresses and various other methods. Before he was twenty he had become famous. During the first half of the last century the little village of Graefenberg, where he lived, was thronged with invalids from all over the world, including many physicians and notable people of high station, government officials, princes, lords, barons,  marquises, who sought relief by the employment of water skillfully applied by attendants acting under the supervision of this prophet of a new method in therapeutics.

Institutions known as "water cures" rapidly sprang up in France, Germany, England and America, and for twenty-five or thirty years prospered greatly. Failure came at last because of a lack of knowledge of scientific principles and the employment of crude and empirical methods.

The Natural Method of Cure.

The "water cure" was the forerunner of something better. It embodied the great principle that "nature heals." Something more than thirty years ago a small group of men organized in Battle Creek a work which later grew into what is now known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The principles recognized by Pythagoras and those who have followed his teachings during the last 2,000 years or more were embodied in this movement, together with others wrought out by scientific investigators and observes. The work prospered from the start, and soon after its incorporation was places upon a purely philanthropic basis as a self supporting charitable institution, and has since remained as such.

The "Battle Creek Idea."

In 1870 the enterprise came to be known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The scope was enlarged so as to include not only hydrotherapy or water treatment, but all sorts of electrical applications, the Swedish system of gymnastics for both the sick and well and various means for the application of light and for the employment of all known natural curative agents.

Later, research laboratories were added for studying cases of disease and conducting original researches for the purpose of perfecting methods and developing improvements in dietetics and all that pertains to the preservation of health and the cure of disease.

A Mecca For the Sick.

Gradually, as a result of these observations and researches, an elaborate and carefully perfected system, based upon sound scientific principles, was developed and became widely known as the "Battle Creek Method" or the "Battle Creek Idea." Battle Creek thus became a Mecca for health seekers, who thronged the place in increasing numbers summer and winter until the number of visitors reached and aggregate of more than 50,000 with an annual total of 6,000 or 7,000.

A Disastrous Fire.

Then came the fire of Feb. 18, 1902, which destroyed the two main buildings of the institution and started a wave of sympathy which spread throughout the whole civilized world. The work was not extinguished by the fire, however, and the completion of a better building at an expense of about $500,000 marked a new era in medical progress, presenting to the world what may be justly regarded as a model sanitarium structure. Here for the first time were gathered together in one place and under one management appliances for the application of all known rational and natural curative agencies, the final perfection of which is now embodied in the great new structure which was dedicated with imposing ceremonies on the 31st day of May of the present year  in the presence of many thousands of persons. A formal invitation was sent by the governor of the state acting with other prominent state officials to leading state and national officials in the United States. Letters and telegrams expressing congratulation and regret at inability to attend were received from the president of the United States, two members of his cabinet, many governors of states, senators and members of congress and other officials in all parts of the country.

A Magnificent Temple of Health.

Some idea of the splendid institution which was thus publicly set apart to the service of God and humanity may be gained from the following brief description: The building is over 550  feet, or more than a tenth of a mile, in length and seven stories in height, including the basement. There are three large four story buildings connected with the main building by a circular corridor. The length of these added to that of the main part makes the aggregate length of the building nearly a quarter of a mile. The building is thoroughly fireproof, the construction being of brick, stone, iron, and cement. The floors are of artificial stone covered with marble mosaic. The total floor space is over seven acres. There are five elevators. The arrangements for baths are most elaborate, as also applications of electricity, light, heat, and all physiological or natural methods in addition to ordinary medical and surgical means.

The Battle Creek Sanitarium is well known and recognized by the medical profession everywhere throughout the civilized world. "The Battle Creek Idea" and the Battle Creek institution have always been kept free from fads and quackish or empirical methods. The work of the institution is throughly scientific. It is strictly unsectarian and undenominational, being simply a liberal Christian enterprise. All the doctors, nurses and managers connected with the institution are persons who have devoted their lives to missionary and philanthropic work and who are full of enthusiasm for the promotion of the principles of simple, natural living and the employment of natural methods in the cure of disease as well as in the maintenance of health.

City Medical Missions.

The great training school for missionary nurses sends out each year a little army of trained men and women filled with zeal and enthusiasm to preach the doctrine of simple natural living and to act the part of Good Samaritans wherever there is found anyone in need of the skilled service which they are prepared to render to rich and poor.

Medical Missions have been established in Chicago and in various other cities in different parts of the world.

Branch establishments, conducted by physicians and nurses trained at the central institution, are located in many parts of the United States and in foreign countries. Numerous unauthorized and unreliable concerns professing to represent the same methods and ideas have sprung up in the vicinity of Battle Creek and elsewhere, and happens to every successful and meritorious enterprise. The authorized branches are located at the following places in the United States:

St. Helena, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Fransisco, Cal.; Boulder and Colorado Springs. Colo.; College View, Lincoln, Neb.; Melrose, Boston, Mass.; Portland, Ore.; Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.; Des Moines, Ia.; Chicago and Moline, Ill.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Buffalo, N. Y.; Madison, Wis.; Graysville and Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta, Ga.; Detroit, Jackson and Grand Rapids, Mich.; Kenne, Tex.

Institutions in which the "Battle Creek Idea" is represented are located as follows in foreign countries:

Caterham, England; Basle, Switzerland; Skodsborg and Frederikshavn, Denmark; Christiania and Orebro, Sweden; Friedensau, Germany; Guadalajara, Mexico; Bergen, Norway; Calcutta, India; Sydney and Cooranbong, N. S. W., Australia; Christchurch, N. Z.; Kimberley, S. Af.; Cairo, Egypt; Jaffa and Jerusalem, Palestine.