Fountains ofYouth NEW JERSEY’S WATER-CURES

his is a story about the bustling medical by Sandra W. marketplace in nineteenth-century New Moss M.D., M.A. T Jersey, and, in particular, the establishments known as water-cures. What we now call alternative, complementary, or holistic medicine was once referred to as sectarian medicine and its Sandra Moss. M.D., M.A. (History) practitioners as irregulars. Most regular or orthodox is a retired internist and past president of the Medical History Society of New Jersey. Dr. Moss writes and speaks physicians, often called "allopaths" by their critics, about the history of medicine in New Jersey. viewed the endless parade of irregular sectarian Acknowledgements: This paper is dedicated to the memory practitioners as either ignorant quacks or educated, of Professor David L. Cowen (1909-22006), New Jersey’s premier medical historian. Archivist Lois Densky-WWolff, but deluded, quacks. In order to get our bearings, Special Collections, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, provided expert research assistance, as did we must look briefly at botanical and homeopathic the staff at Rutgers University Archives and Special sects before turning to the hydropaths, hygeio- Collections. therapists, and naturopaths.

Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 FROM JERSEY TEA struggling to make a living. Repeatedly TO JERSEY CURE stymied in its efforts to control Botanical medicine was a mainstay in practice through state licensing, the New Jersey from colonial times. “Herb regular medical establishment dithered “Water” and root” doctors and genuine (or for decades over the problem of by A.S.A. bogus) “Indian cures” supplemented medical sects. In the 1820s, the the domestic ministrations of Medical Society of New Jersey Water, bright and beautiful water, housewives and neighbors. “Jersey tea,” denounced the itinerant Pervading everything in Nature, brewed from Ceanothus americanus “irregular-bred pretenders to during the Revolutionary era, later medicine” whose progress was marked In the dew-drop on the leaves, found its way into pharmaceutical In the ocean’s curling wave, compendia.1 Early Swedish settlers used wormseed and moccasin flower In the crystal fountain leaping, for intestinal worms and spasmodic afflictions. Dr. Lawrence Vandeveer of In the lonely grotto sleeping, Somerset, a founder of the Medical In the springs and deep-cut wells, Society of New Jersey, credited skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) In the silent shady dells, with preventing rabies in In the rills with hues of silver, hundreds of patients in the late- eighteenth century.2 In the rapid flowing river, False advertising and shameless promotion underlay most of In the cooling shower refreshing, New Jersey’s colorful assortment In Niagara's cataract dashing, of patent medicines, including Brown’s Liver Invigorator, Dr. In polar climes of snow and sleet, Brigg’s Modern Curative, Goff ’s Forming winter’s winding sheet, Annihilator, Indian Cough Syrup, Dr. Clark’s Life Pills, Rough on Bile Where rainbow hues delight the eye, Pills, Wells’ Health Renewer, Pell’s Malaria Eradicator, and Jersey Cure.3 All pervading element of nature, The profitable G.G. Green company of Why can half thy goodness measure? Woodbury claimed that its “attested” by August Flower and German Syrup For burning fever, aches, and pains, Cartoon in the Water-Cure Journal ridiculing the remedies healed tuberculosis, regular profession, portrayed as a crude, boorish Water-cure the balm contains, promoted nervous energy, improved man grinding up toxic pharmaceuticals. Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reform, 1849 the quality and color of the blood, The “packing,” “sitz,” or “dripping sheet,” sustained mental exertion, and stopped “retrograde metamorphosis.”4 “cunning, deception and falsehood.”5 Will quiet pain, encourage sleep; In the 1840s, regulars compared The “plunge,” the “douche,” “half-bath,” DOCTOR WARS: sectarian practitioners to “the and “shower,” IRREGULARS vs. REGULARS scrofulous tubercles of the lungs [that] From its founding in 1766, the corrode and destroy the vitality of the Will inflammation soon o’erpower, whole system.”6 A leading Newark Medical Society of New Jersey With proper action, food, and air, Water positioned itself as the guardian of physician urged his fellows to banish will all our ills repair. legitimate medical knowledge and homeopathic quacks to the practice in the state. Quacks or not, “companionship of the superstitions Water Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms the irregulars represented unwelcome that flourish in murky heathendom.”7 12 (1852), 18 competition for regular physicians In 1865, the Medical Society of New Jersey counted some one hundred and Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 fifty irregular practitioners in the state; regard for the healing power of nature. like a comet from the far-off regions, of the twenty-one female irregulars, and disappears as suddenly.”11 most were “of the class known as the LOBELIA And After the Civil War, the eclectic progressive bloomer kind, spiritualists, INFINITESIMALS: movement, drawing from regular and infidels.”8 THOMSONIANS AND medicine as well as homeopathic and Nineteenth-century New Jerseyans HOMEOPATHS botanical systems, became an witnessed the grim harvest of The windy promises of charismatic important force in American practice. tuberculosis, typhoid, and epidemic founders of new medical sects held In 1865, the medical society counted great appeal for the ailing thirty one eclectic practitioners in the public. Early in the state.12 Charles Wilson, “botanic century, Samuel Thomson, druggist” of Newark, boasted of three New Hampshire farmer decades of “Eclectic, Thompsonian and self-proclaimed [sic], Botanic, Clairvoyant, and Family medical prophet, Prescriptions carefully prepared.”13 popularized his botanical Eclectic physician Amanda Taft system of healing, based practiced with her husband in Newark on the notion of heat as a in the 1870s and was secretary of the vital force. In the Eclectic Medical Association of New Jacksonian era of the Jersey, founded in 1873.14 common man, any In the second half of the century, intelligent layman could the greatest sectarian threat was Advertising notice for New Brunswick Thomsonian practitioner, J.J. Waldron. Special Collections, Rutgers University become a Thomsonian homeopathy, the invention of physician and join a disaffected German physician Samuel cholera. Infant and childhood Thomsonian Friendly Botanic Society Hahnemann, who proclaimed his mortality and death in childbirth were by purchasing Thomson’s New Guide “laws” of similars and infinitesimals: common. The most skilled physicians to Health, and a kit of Thomson’s remedies that cause a symptom when had few effective medications, modern sequentially numbered remedies. The given in full doses would cure the same surgery was in its infancy, and jewel in the crown of Thomsonian symptom when given in tiny doses. antisepsis was unknown. Leaders of therapeutics was lobelia (puke-weed, Such “infinitesimals” were created by a healing sects were united in vomitwort, gagroot) a toxic plant series of ritualistic dilutions.15 denouncing the “heroic” medical which induced violent vomiting as it Homeopathy, with its educated and practices of the regulars, and the cleaned and allegedly regenerated the sophisticated practitioners, including public was inclined to agree. Regular stomach, the Thomsonian furnace of many German immigrant physicians, practitioners relied heavily on the body. Enemas, steam baths and appealed to the urban middle and phlebotomy (bleeding) to regulate and “hot” herbs such as cayenne pepper upper classes. With their gentle, restore a vaguely understood internal and ginger completed Thomson’s watered-down medications and balance. Generations of doctors system.9 In 1831, John J. Waldron of scientific-sounding patter, homeopaths purged and puked their hapless New Brunswick paid twenty dollars were serious rivals to the regulars, who patients with calomel (a toxic “for the Right of preparing and using had little to offer (said the mercurial laxative) and tartar emetic the medicine secured to Doctor homeopaths) but harsh drugs and their (an antimony-based emetic). Tonics Samuel Thomson by letters own scientific-sounding patter. such as Fowler’s solution (an arsenical patent...[H]e is constituted a member Homeopathic medical schools, mixture) were prescribed to build up a of the Friendly Botanic Society and is societies, and journals flourished. depleted system. Irritant plasters raised entitled to all the privileges there unto Many homeopaths practiced a mixture blisters on the skin to draw out Belonging.”10 New Jersey had just a of regular and homeopathic medicine, diseased matter from internal organs. handful of Thomsonian practitioners. an appealing compromise for them and As the century progressed, many of A Burlington County physician wrote their clientele. In 1874, Newark New Jersey’s regular physicians poetically in 1854: “Occasionally a counted eighteen homeopaths among abandoned heroic therapy in favor of son of Lobelia with his pepper and its one hundred and five physicians.16 gentler medications and a greater steam comes hissing through our orbit The New Jersey homeopaths formed Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 their own state society in 1877. In Priessnitz a “water-daemon.”19 In relation to the vital organism, like air, debating the question of a state board contrast to the hot mineral waters so light, water, food, exercise, sleep, of medical examiners, the president of enjoyed by Europeans at pleasant electricity, etc.”21 Trall adopted the the MSNJ declared in 1889: “At the resorts such as Bath and Baden Baden, more inclusive and scientific-sounding present time the only quackery to hydropathic cures worked through the name “hygeio-therapy” for his system. legislate against in our state is force of pure, cold water. A The New York Hydropathic School, Homeopathy. What chance is there Philadelphia medical journal later the New York Hygeio- against this powerful organization?”17 pronounced hydropathy the “reigning Therapeutic College, was opened at When a state board of medical humbug in Europe” and predicted that Trall’s water-cure institute in 1853. In examiners was finally created in 1890, Americans would happily submit addition to water-cure, Trall and however, the statute called for five themselves to wet sheets, other hygeio-therapists regulars, three homeopaths and even tumblers of cold water, advocated temperance, one eclectic member. By 1910, New and “stale rye non-smoking, hygienic Jersey’s homeopaths and eclectics were bread.”20 living, physical welcomed into the ranks of the exercise, regulars; all three united in Right: Russell G. Trall, vegetarianism, American champion of the opposition to what they all saw as water-cure. sensible dress (no the new common threat from tight-laced osteopathy.18 corsets!), sex and Below: Trall's Hygeian childbirth Home and Hygeio- THE WATER-CURE: Therapeutic College, education, and the PACKING, PLUNGING, Florence, New Jersey. unbleached and J.D. Scott, Historical Atlas of AND SITZING Burlington County, New Jersey, unsifted flour 1876 Physicians and healers since time promoted in the immemorial have used 1830s by preacher and water in the form of food reformer Sylvester baths and compresses as Graham.22 part of their therapeutic In the pages of the Water- arsenal. In the 1820s, Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms, Vincent Priessnitz, an Trall outlined the American version of Austrian farmer, Preissnitz’s water-cure system. The wet- catapulted his personal sheet packing, in which a cold wet cold-water cure into a sheet and an outer layer of blankets “system”of hydropathic were tightly wrapped about the body, treatment for all the was said to “correct morbid and afflictions of mankind. restore healthy secretions” in addition Priessnitz opened the to sedating and soothing the nervous world’s first water-cure establishment at system. The mummified patient was Gräfenberg, Austria, in 1826, enjoying One of the first water-cures in left to shiver, then sweat, for fifteen great success among the European America was opened in New York in minutes to two hours. In rubbing wet- glitterati of the day (along with some 1844 by Russell T. Trall M.D., a sheet treatments, patients were Americans), while influencing a graduate of Albany Medical College wrapped in a wet sheet and rubbed generation of devoted disciples. Not and the American champion of the “energetically and perseveringly” to for the timid (or very sick) were the Preissnitz water-cure. Trall had studied divert internal toxins to the pores of vigorous regimens of wet bandages, regular medicine in search of a the skin. For the fit and hardy, there baths, showers, soaks, copious water solution to his own unspecified was the douche (shower), in which a drinking, and a rather grim diet. “persistent ailments.” According to an forceful torrent of piped-in mountain Although some regular medical men 1891 biography, however, he spring water gushed onto the patient were wooed and won, others became discovered that “the only true remedial from above. The douche was said to severe critics; one such critic called agents were those bearing a normal “arouse the absorbent system.”The Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 sitting or “sitz” bath, still used today schools, the hydropathic schools for symptomatic relief of painful welcomed women students and faculty. bottoms, was recommended as a Women, who turned to hydropathy for “revulsive” for “affections of the head “female complaints,” appreciated the and chest” (presumably drawing the presence of a female doctor on staff.25 toxins away from the affected areas) as Trall’s daughter-in-law, Rebecca, was well as a “corroborant” for disorders also an M.D. and water-cure doctor. In of the lower abdomen and pelvis. The 1853, the ladies of Trenton formed a cold plunge bath, a quick immersion water-cure society for “those ladies of the whole body up to the neck, was who desire to become better The wet-sheet pack, believed to rid the body of toxins through the pores in the skin. recommended after packings and as a acquainted with their own Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms, 1850 regular morning ablution. Both men constitutions, and feel disposed to and women might be prescribed the engage in the work of forwarding a “wet dress,” a coarse cotton or linen proper system of female physical, as garment to be worn at night. Wet well as mental, education.”26 bandages were applied to the chest or In his “Hydropathic Encyclopedia,” abdomen to treat regional afflictions. Trall fired back at the regulars who The liberal intake of pure water and, were critical of hydropathy and other at the other end, colonic irrigations drugless sects: “...no age of the world were also part of various water-cure presents a medley of medical scribblers regimens. Insistence on cold water in the regular profession more biased The douche-bath, a forceful gush of cold water, treatments was variable, and tepid or and bigoted in their notions, more often piped in from a mountain stream, which fell from a height upon hardy subjects. warm water was used in some visionary in their speculations, more R.T. Trall, Hydropathic Encyclopedia, 1853 patients.23 puerile in their theories, and more Hygeio-therapy had much to inconsistent in their practices, than is recommend it. Leaders of the furnished by the history of the present profession emphasized personal state of the medical profession in this responsibility for health and the role of country.”27 the mind and emotions in intensifying The Water-Cure Journal and Herald symptoms. Magazine articles and of Reform, to which Trall was a major books such as Trall's “Water-Cure for contributor, reached a large audience the Million and The Hydropathic and readers were urged to sign up new Encyclopedia” laid out programs for subscribers. In 1853, a Princeton The sitting-bath or sitz-bath, conducive to reading. home care and consumer education. student wrote to inform the editor that R.T. Trall, Hydropathic Encyclopedia, 1853 The hydropathic emphasis on personal he was busy with his studies and had cleanliness, emerging in an era when little time to sell subscriptions. He was regular bathing was considered pleased to report that “quite a number esthetically unnecessary and even of the students have the Water-Cure dangerous, appeals to our modern Encyclopaedia, by Dr. Trall, and sensibilities. various other of your publications.”28 For some converts, hydropathy took on a moralistic tone, as they washed JERSEY WATER-CURES: away “corruption and putrefaction.”24 CRYSTAL-CLEAR WATERS Hydropathy fit in well with mid- IN THE GARDEN STATE century reformist ideals of human In 1867, Trall brought his water-cure perfectibility. Women, as the guardians to New Jersey, founding the Eastern of family health, found that Hygeian Home at scenic Florence The plunge-bath, a quick total-body dip in a pool of cool water, often following a wet-sheet hydropathy appealed to their Heights overlooking the Delaware pack. intellectual and egalitarian sensibilities. River (Burlington County). The grand Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms, 1850 Like homeopathic and eclectic medical establishment catered to three hundred Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 residents. Recreations such as billiards, by which passengers are landed at the Fellerer was the author of “A Report rowing, and a river promenade Station House of the establishment.” of Two Hundred Interesting Cases complemented the hydropathic Founder and first director, Dr. Charles Treated With Water.” Under new regimens.29 By 1869, Trall’s Hygeio- H. Meeker of Newark, had observed ownership, the water-cure sputtered Therapeutic College transferred and studied with Priessnitz in Austria along until 1857, when it became a operations to the Florence for over a year.33 The Water Cure summer resort hotel.37 establishment. Among the students was Journal proclaimed that Meeker “has A decade after it closed, Stephen young John Harvey Kellogg, who the largest, best, and every way the Wickes, M.D., a leading regular would go on to earn an M.D. from most attractive Water Cure House in physician from Orange, subjected the Bellevue Medical College and make his the State, which is always liberally Orange Water-Cure to withering name as the colon-obsessed medical patronized. This place needs no criticism. Orange, wrote Wickes, had director of the sanitarium at Battle recommendation from us.”34 been “the center of a grand Creek, Michigan (celebrated in the film Advertisements boasted of experiment in the annals of medical “The Road to Wellville”).30 Trall’s “extensive panoramic views” and pretension.”The regular physicians lost institute continued until 1875, when it woodland paths.35 By 1851, the patients to the blandishments of the was offered for sale. He died “pretending quacks,” and it seemed from complications of a as if “the good old paths of respiratory infection in 1877 sound medical truth were to be and is buried in Florence.31 washed out by a flood of water.” In 1967, Harry B. Weiss, Water, at once a tonic and a New Jersey State entomologist “debilitant,” had its place in and a prolific historian of regular therapy; but only the Jerseyana, together with Howard trained physician, Wickes asserted, R. Kemble, wrote “The Great familiar with the disease process American Water-Cure Craze,” and the “state of vigor or debility painstakingly documenting over of the patient,” could properly 38 two hundred American water The Orange Mountain Water-Cure, frequently advertised in prescribe such treatments. cures, including ten in New hydropathic journals. The Schooley’s Mountain Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms, 1853 Jersey. Typically, guests stayed Water Cure in Washington for weeks or months, Resident Township (Morris County) physicians often boasted European expanding water-cure-cum-resort, with operated between 1851 and 1853, credentials. Many water-cures, located room for one hundred “cure-guests,” catering to wealthy clients. A financial in lush rural settings. were operated offered an outdoor packing room, dispute between the physician owners and advertised like magnificent resort plunge bath, douche, wave bath, and ended the venture. In the Plainfield hotels. The earliest known water-cure swimming bath as well as horses, area, a British physician and his in New Jersey was in Morristown, billiards, bowling, and, (for the ladies) daughter-in-law operated the where Dr. George Dexter, an associate a working flower garden. As was Washington Springs Water-Cure for of Trall, operated his rather pricey common among American water-cure ladies in 1853. A subsequent ($12 per week) and short-lived facility establishments, owners and medical physician/owner treated both men and between 1845 and 1847, complete directors came and went in rapid women, offering “electrochemical with a spacious plunge bath and succession. For a time, German baths” for some years until unpaid spring-fed douche. From Morristown, medical graduate Dr. Joseph Weder, debts shut down the facility. Dr. E.J. Dexter published The Fountain or who was familiar with European spas, Loewenthal, who had previous Hydropathic Journal, which lasted just was the resident physician at South experience at the prestigious two issues.32 Orange.36 A later resident physician, Brattleboro (Vermont) Hydropathic The Orange Mountain Water-Cure, Edward Fellerer, announced the Institute, operated a water-cure in opened in 1848, operated from an opening of the New Jersey Bergen Heights in the 1850s.39 impressive building situated on sixteen Hydropathic Collegiate Institute on The Parkerville Hydropathic scenic acres in South Orange, “on the the South Orange site in 1853, though Institute (Gloucester County) opened line of the Morris and Essex Railway, few, if any, students matriculated. in 1848 under the medical directorship Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 of George Dexter, late of the KNEIPPISM: FROM THE ministered to German immigrants. Morristown water-cure. Investors were DANUBE TO DENVILLE Joch credited Kneipp with his own given the option of being repaid in At the end of the century, cure from tuberculosis, becaming a hydropathic services. Dexter, who also hydropathy enjoyed an international faithful disciple. Joch was determined dabbled in spiritualism, claimed that revival. Preissnitzian hydrotherapy was to set up a Kneippian water-cure in his methods could cure “galloping repackaged in Germany by Sebastian Denville (Essex County) near the large consumption” (rapidly-progressive Kneipp, a tubercular young priest. German enclave in Newark. The Order tuberculosis) in one month. Parkerville Renewed in health and strength by of St. Francis purchased two hundred boasted a circular stone room in which dips in the chilly Danube, Kneipp acres along the Rockaway River. While cold spring water fell from a height of opened a sanitorium at the monastery residential facilities for the St. Francis thirty feet onto patients deemed in Wörishofen, refining his system to Sanitarium were still in the planning sufficiently hardy for a douche bath. include herbal baths and potions, stage, day patients came from nearby Parkerville, which towns to stand on closed in 1852 submerged wooden maintained separate platforms in the facilities for alcoholics, “invigorating, crystal clear abusers of morphine water.” In the decades that and stimulants, and the followed, the residential insane.40 and therapeutic facilities Some New Jerseyans expanded; among the sought water-cures out features were treatment of state. In 1850, the rooms with floors and registry at a famed walls of marble. water-cure in Initially, Joch Brattleboro, Vermont, administered the water- listed five ladies from cure treatments for the Trenton. Dr. male patients and Sister Schieferdecker’s Wendelinha Bauer looked notorious water-cure in after the female patients. Philadelphia was the In 1898 a water-cure site of the negligent Father Joseph Joch (far right, seated), the resident physician (far right, standing) physician from Wisconsin and a group of patients at St. Francis, Denville, ca. 1905. death from gangrene St. Francis...The First 100 Years. Special Collections, UMDNJ joined the sanitarium as and bedsores of the house physician. daughter of an Episcopal clergyman exercise, dietetics, hot baths, steam St. Francis attracted a national and from Belvidere, N.J., in 1874.41 baths, and local applications of water international clientele as it took on the By 1870, hydrotherapy was in by means of a watering can or hose. In trappings of a health spa and resort decline and many lavish water-cures order to toughen up their weak, hotel in the 1920s. Promotional were closed. The novelty wore off as enervated, urbanized bodies, Kneipp’s literature in the late 1930s stressed the public wearied of self-denial and followers took long barefoot walks in that the health resort catered to the uncomfortable treatments. The horrors the morning dew or frost. They were mildly ill, convalescents, and those in of the Civil War put the damper on urged to clear their minds of worries, need of “rest and recuperation.” It was visions of human perfectibility. wear loose and comfortable clothing. not a hospital and did not have the Scientific advances such as the germ limit spices, avoid alcohol, and get as staff or equipment for “bedridden theory, the promise of new medical much fresh air as possible. cases, incurables, nursing care, or night and surgical therapies, and the In 1895, Father Joseph Joch, a attendance.” “Drug fiends” and beginning of a revolution in medical temperamental Austrian-born priest, alcoholics were “debarred.”The old education helped raise the status of together with seven Sisters of the Kneippian water-cure regimens were regular medicine in the eyes of the Sorrowful Mother of the Third Order expanded into a smorgasbord of trendy public.42 of St. Frances, arrived in New Jersey therapies. By the 1940s, the resident from Wisconsin, where they had physician might prescribe alcohol rubs, Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 electric light baths, infrared lights, pine walked until they and their clothes of staff physicians, Norwegian-trained needle bubble baths, salt rubs, sulfur were dry. Later guests, many from massage therapists, and the “most baths, short waves, or ultraviolet rays. neighboring states, waded and bathed approved scientific apparatus for Hydrotherapy at in the cedar waters of a administering baths, sprays, and St. Joseph’s ended in cleverly designed douches.” Potential guests, in the the 1960s.43 St. “serpentine bathing accepted social order of the day, were Joseph’s was channel” next to the large reassured by the policy boldly stated particularly proud of guest house. To reinforce on the first page of the brochure: its “douche table,” a the myth, Schmidt, who “Hebrew Patronage Not Solicited.”46 “hi-tech” piece of sported a full white beard, Idylease’s prohibition of tubercular equipment claimed to be one hundred cases reflected modern understanding purported to place and thirty years old. The of tuberculosis as a transmissible hydrotherapy on a sanitarium failed in the infection caused by bacteria. Robert firm scientific early 1910s.45 Koch in Germany first isolated the foundation. The The Idlyease Inn in tubercle bacillus in 1882, although it table was developed Newfoundland (Passaic took some years for the medical by American State-of-the-art "douche (shower) County) was advertised in community to fully accept the physician Simon table" for directing water spray at 1908 as a modern health infectious nature of the disease. water-cure guests, St. Frances Baruch (father of Health Resort in Denville, ca. resort, offering “All Forms Victims of tuberculosis, previously financier Bernard 1940s. of Hydro-Therapy and thought to be suffering from an St. Francis...The First 100 Years. Special Baruch) who Collections, UMDNJ Massage.” Idylease was a inherited or constituional weakness of embraced “quiet, homelike place for the lungs, belonged in sanitoriums, not hydrotherapy as an essential Semi-Invalids, Convalescents, water-cures. This attitude contrasts component of general medical Neurasthenics, and Mild Cases of sharply to earlier claims of tuberculosis practice. The fine marble table was Cardiac, Nephritic and Stomachic cures by nineteenth-century water-cure fitted with hoses and faucets for Troubles, and for those desiring change practitioners. Indeed, many water-cure spraying hot or cold water. The of environment. No Tubercular or doctors became converts to the system operator, who controlled temperature, timing, and pressure, sprayed water at the patient who braced himself some ten feet away. Alternately, water at the prescribed pressure and temperature could be transmitted to a cage-like apparatus that distributed the stream into multiple encircling showerheads.44 In South Jersey, Dr. Charles Schmidt (later Smith) of Atlantic City opened a water-cure sanitarium at Egg Harbor City (Atlantic County). The founding myth went something like this: Schmidt himself had drunk the waters and bathed in a fountain of youth somewhere in the vicinity in 1836. He “rediscovered” the site at Egg Harbor St. Francis Health Resort, Denville, N.J., ca. 1952. Special Collections, UMDNJ City in 1859, but it was not until 1900 that he could open Dr. Schmidt’s Objectionable Cases.” as a result of their personal return to Water-Cure. Early guests, most likely The resident physician and health from what they believed to be from the German-speaking community superintendent was Dr. D.E. Drake. A (and often was) progressive of Egg Harbor City, bathed near a brochure published in about 1930 tuberculosis. In retrospect, we know waterfall, drank Persian herb tea, and stressed the round-the-clock availability that untreated tuberculosis is often Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 marked by spontaneous remissions was living in New York in the early grow well and strong again, to be born (and relapses), although some 1890s when he, too, developed anew, to regain lost health and vitality unfortunate sufferers experience a tuberculosis. Pronounced incurable by and with it the fire and enthusiasm and relentless downhill course. Until the his American doctors, he returned to the joy of living that comes with a introduction of streptomycin in the Germany, took the Kniepp water-cure, perfectly sound body and a vigorous and well-poised mind.” As part of the “regeneration cure,” Yungborn guests took the usual hydropathic treaments, inhaled the invigorating mountain air, hiked for miles, walked barefoot in the dewy grass, sunbathed in “the garb of nature,” absorbed the “healing magnetism” of mud baths, performed calisthenics, exercised in the “splendidly equipped” gymnasium, enjoyed massages and physiotherapy techniques such as “Swedish movement,” drank pure spring water, and ate the vegetarian meals supervised by Mrs. Lust, N.D.51 Lust rhapsodized that within every person lay the The Serpentine Creek at Dr. Smith's Neutral-Water Health Resort and Sanitorium in Egg Harbor City, ca. 1910. From the collection of Ron Hesse, Courtesy Egg Harbor City Historical Society potential for “Massive Muscle, Surging Blood, Tingling Nerve, Zestful late 1940s, doctors and patients and recovered. He also investigated Digestion, Superb Sex, Beautiful Body, naturally attributed apparent recoveries various German “nature cures.”49 Back Sublime Thought, Pulsating Power... to the treatment of the moment, in New York, Lust’s fertile imagination Glorious Freedom, Perpetual Peace, whether it be crisp mountain air, long and flowing pen transformed the Limitless Unfoldment, and Conscious sea voyages, the piney Adirondacks, or Kneippian water-cure into a universal Godhood.”52 the water-cure. system of healthful living that Among many prominent adherents Lust called “naturopathy.” to the water cure was John Augustus “The masters of healing in Roebling, Trenton’s famous engineer naturopathic pathology,” wrote and industrialist. In 1869, Roebling lay Lust, “seek to attack the cause dying in excruciating pain and misery of disease by liberating upon from tetanus, a complication of a foot and within the organism, the injury sustained while examining the beneficent forces of nature...”50 site of the future Brooklyn Bridge. Until his death in 1945, he Beyond help from any physician, would be naturopathy’s regular or sectarian, the great engineer greatest champion. steadfastly demanded hydropathic In 1896, Lust chose Butler Brochure for Idylease Inn, ca. 1930, with restrictive policies. Special Collections, UMDNJ treatments; his tremulous handwritten (Morris County) in the deathbed notes insisted upon “no Ramapo Mountains as the perfect site From Yungborn, Lusk operated his nonsense of the Drs.”47 He was buried for a new venture. Variously called the Nature Cure Publishing Company, in Trenton, a city plunged into Kneipp Naturopathic Establishment offering books such as Louisa Lust’s mourning.48 for Promoting Natural Life, Jungborn Good Dinner Cook Book, reprints and (roughly, “fountain of youth” in translations of important German THE ROAD TO YUNGBORN: German), and, finally, the naturopathic authors, and his own BACK TO NATUROPATHY Americanized Yungborn, Lust’s New array of journals and books. The Young German-born Benedict Lust Jersey health resort was a “place to Kneipp Naturopathic Supply Store at Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 Yungborn sold “porous health homeopathic and osteopathic schools, have plenty of hot water; and there I underwear,” as well as “air shoes” and often billed himself as N.D., rigged up such apparatus as suited my (sandals), air bath gowns, and porous M.D., D.O., and D.C. purpose, and I took the new blood- suspenders, some of which sound The flirtation with chiropractic washing bath...I am not exaggerating comfortable to the modern ear (except ended by the 1930s, when Lust when I say that three of those eight- for the porous suspenders). The voice accused the chiropractors of trying to hour units...made me, a man of sixty, of naturopathy in America was Lust’s destroy naturopathy using “despicable, feel twenty-five years younger...There is magazine, Naturopath and Herald of dastardly, treacherous tactics.”The no tedium under the shower. It is as Health (originally the Kneipp Water- chiropractors were, he fumed, worse enthralling as an opium dream is said Cure Monthly). In 1913, he opened a than the “medical crowd.”56 to be.” Blood-washing was later second Yungborn in Tangerine in Lust never stopped looking for the prescribed for patients at Yungborn.57 central Florida.53 fountain of youth. In the 1920s, he In 1943, Lust was overcome by Lust founded the American was sure he had found it. “Blood smoke at his Florida Yungborn. He School of Naturopathy in remained convinced until his death in New York in 1901, Left: Benedict Lust as a young 1945 that the sulfa drugs prescribed man, ca. 1903. offering the degree of Adolf Just, Return to Nature: The True by his physicians to control the Natural Method of Healing and Living and N.D. (Naturopathic the True Salvation of the Soul, 1903 infections that so commonly prove Doctor). Students fatal in burn patients, had poisoned were trained in his body and shortened his life. He is vibration, massage, buried in Butler near his New Jersey electricity, Below: Benedict Lust's Yungborn.58 Yungborn Sanitorium, Butler, magnetism, physical N.J., ca. 1921. New Jersey had its own naturopathic manipulation, Special Collections, UMDNJ medical college in Newark, gloriously hydropathy, diet and named The First fasting, and exercise National University of regimens. For mind, Naturopathy: spirit, and soul, students Embracing New Jersey learned such principles College of as self-culture, pure love, Osteopathy, Mecca and “spirit- College of unfoldment.” Except for Chiropractic, United healing herbs, students States School of were to view all drugs as Naturopathy, United poisons and those who States School of prescribed them as little Physiotherapy, better than murderers. National School of Some courses were Physical Culture. The offered at Yungborn, college was such as the “special residence beginners washing” was a system of lengthy incorporated by its founder and dean, and post-graduate courses.” Lust warm showers in which the subject F.W. Collins in 1905, although it is eagerly brought new healing systems frequently changed position in order to unclear when the school actually under the naturopathic umbrella.54 A expose all areas of the body to the hot opened or how long it lasted. The 1917 advertisement invited students to spray. In his 1923 book, “The lavish brochure of 1930 listed lecturers “Become a Doctor of Naturopathy Fountain of Youth or Curing by Water: (including Lust) with an alphabet soup which will qualify you at the same time How You May Quickly Overcome of medical degrees after their names, as Osteopath, Chiropractor, Acute and Chronic Illness by the Use along with the names of the school’s Hydropath, Dietician, Electropath, of the Biological Blood-Washing two prominent attorneys, retained to Mechanotherapist, Neuropath, Bath,” he described his epiphany: “And fight off challenges from “our Zonetherapist, Mental Scientist, etc.”55 so I went down to my sanitorium in powerful and influential enemy the Lust himself was a graduate of Butler, N.J., where I was sure I would Medical trust, A.M.A.” Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 Course offerings covered find frequent and varied applications in hydrotherapy as well as a spectrum of modern physical therapy.63 Prior to the dubious fads, including iridology mid-twentieth century, when effective (diagnosis of disease by examining the psychotropic medications became “The iris), thermotherapy, actinotherapy, available, psychiatric institutions universal naturopathic tonic treatment, routinely used baths, packs, and astro-science, phrenology, pelvic showers to calm agitated or delirious adjustment, the Collins neuro-chrome patients.64 Nature therapy, and naturopathic foot It’s hard to argue with taking baths, correction.59 eating sensibly, exercising regularly, dressing comfortably, and keeping Rx: BATHE OFTEN, EAT well-informed about health. Many of Cure at RIGHT, EXERCISE the late-nineteenth-century hydropaths REGULARLY and naturopaths were sincere in their Regular practitioners gradually beliefs, despite their entrepreneurial Butler” adopted some of the practices of the spirit and a propensity for outrageous hydropaths and naturopaths, although claims and shameless hyperbole. Lust For Mister Lust can make you well, if you will much of the impetus for change came and his colleagues, in their “reverential let him lay from within medicine itself. In 1900, absorption in the benevolent mysteries the Cooper Hospital in Camden, along of nature,” indiscriminately The plans for what you eat and wear, and his with many other American hospitals, championed and marketed every commands obey. claimed success in treating typhoid drugless fad that rolled down the fever with a system of cold baths ‘pike.65 He's got an Eden out of town, where you will invented by Ernst Brand of Germany.60 The spirit of hydropathy and get no meat, In the absence of effective antibiotics naturopathy lives on in comforting, if (prior to the early 1950s), tuberculosis fuzzy, concepts such as “organic” and And walk 'mid trees as Adam did, in birthday experts also looked to nature. A 1906 “holistic.” As was the case with suit complete;. . . hydropathy, “alternative medicine” has editorial in the Journal of the Medical Roast beef, cigars, and lager-beer you'll never Society of New Jersey proclaimed: gained greater respectibility in regular want again, “Gradually, almost in spite of medical circles when reframed as ourselves, the truth has forced itself “complementary medicine.” When you've been healed by Butler, by fruit, upon us that the consumptive is, Much of the attraction and the fresh air, and rain. generally speaking, better off without power of hydropathy and other drugs...‘Back to Nature’ must we go sectarian medical cults lay in the fact It's very cheap as well as good -- this wondrous before we can make any headway in the that regular medicine seemed to have Nature Cure, management of this widespread and little to offer in the half century And if you take it home with you, its blessings intractable malady [i.e., tuberculosis]... following the Civil War, particularly in will endure; Fresh, pure, outdoor air, sunlight and the area of effective pharmaceutical properly selected food form the tripod therapy. The New Jersey hydropaths For all the ills of all mankind, the cheapest upon which the entire modern and naturopaths of a century and more and the best treatment of consumption rests.”61 ago were a colorful bunch with a flair Johns Hopkins internist William for drama. Let us raise our cups of Is Mister Lust's great Nature Cure -- just put it Osler, the dean of American physicians Ceanothus americanus (Jersey tea) and to the test! at the turn of the twentieth century, our bottles of pricey designer water recommended cold baths and wet chest (with natural antioxidants) to their Naturopath and Herald of Health 5 (1904): 151 binders for tuberculosis.62 memory. Baths and compresses continue to

Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008 1 David L. Cowen, Medicine and Health in New 22 Whorton, Nature Cures, 77-101; Weiss and New Jersey and Connecticut, New York (New Jersey: A History (Princeton: Van Nostrand, Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, 36-7, 89 York: Medical Society of the State of New York, 1964), 3-4 23 R.T. Trall, "The Water-Cure Process Illustrated," 1908), 11; Idylease Inn, (Newfoundland NJ, n.d.) 2 Thomas P. Fitzpatrick, "The Lenape Contribution Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms 8 Special Collections, University of Medicine and to New Jersey Medicine," Journal of the Medical (1849), 2-7; Marshall Scott Legan, "Hydropathy in Dentistry of New Jersey (brochure). Society of New Jersey (JMSNJ) 81 (1984): 701- America: A Nineteenth Century Panacea," 47 Letters, Ferdinand W. Roebling, MC 654, Special 6; Stephen Wickes, History of Medicine in New Bulletin of the History of Medicine 45 (1971), 267- Collections and University Archives, Rutgers Jersey and of Its Medical Men from the 80. University Libraries. Settlement of the Province to A.D. 1800 (Newark: 24 Whorton, Nature Cures, 85-7. 48 David McCullough, The Great Bridge: The Epic Martin R. Dennis, 1879), 427-429. 25 Jane B. Donegan, Hydropathic Highway to Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge (New 3 William Helfand, personal communication Health: Women and Water-Cure in Antebellum York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 90-99. 4 G.G. Green: Home of August Flower and German America (New York, Westport CT: Greenwood 49 Whorton, Nature Cures, 192 Syrup (Woodbury, NJ, 1889), Special Collections, Press, 1986), xi-xvi 50 Advertisement in Louis Kuhne, Neo-Naturopathy: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New 26 Water Cure Journal and Herald of Reform 14 The New Science of Healing and the Doctrine of Jersey (pamphlet). (1853): 122. the Unity of Diseases (Special Authorized 5 Augustus R. Taylor, Ferdinand S. Schenck, 27 Russell T. Trall, The Hydropathic Encyclopedia: A American Edition) (Butler NJ, New York: Benedict "Report of the Standing Committee for the Year System of Hydropathy and Hygiene, Designed as Lust, 1917). 1828," Transactions of the Medical Society of a Guide to Families and Students, and a Text- 51 Advertisement, Kuhne, Neo-Naturopathy; New Jersey, 1766-1858 (Newark: Jannings and Book for Physicians (New York: Fowlers and Advertisement, Naturopath and Herald of Health Hardham, 1875), 245-8 (quotation, 245); Wells, 1853), 34. 19 (1914), n.p. 6 John Lilly, L.A. Smith, E.J. Marsh, "Report of the 28 Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reform 15 52 Advertisement, Naturopath and Herald of Health Standing Committee for the Year 1848," (1853): 36. (1902), cited in Whorton, Nature Cures, 196. Transactions of the Medical Society of New 29 Weiss and Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, 53 Advertisement, Kuhne, Neo-Naturopathy; Jersey, 1766-1858, 429-34 (quotation 429) 84-5. Whorton, Nature Cures, 191-9, 205. 7 Alexander Dougherty, "Report from the Eastern 30 Richard W. Schwarz, John Harvey Kellogg 54 Whorton, Nature Cures, 195-6 District," Transactions of the Medical Society of (Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 55 Advertisement, Kuhne, Neo-Naturopathy. New Jersey; 1766-1858, 438-42 (quotation 441). 1970), 27-30. 56 Naturopath and Herald of Health 40 (1935): 2-3. 8 Stephen Wickes, Chas. Hasbrouck, R. Gaunt, 31 Weiss and Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, 57 Benedict Lust, The Fountain of Youth or Curing "Report of the Standing Committee," 85-9. by Water: How You May Quickly Overcome Acute Transactions of the Medical Society of New 32 Weiss and Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, and Chronic Illness by the Use of the Biological Jersey (1866): 121-22 (quotation, 122). 41-4, 138-9. Blood-Washing Bath (New York: Macfadden 9 James C. Whorton, Nature Cures: The History of 33 Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms 5 Publications, 1923), 102; Benedict Lust, Blood Alternative Medicine in America (New York: (1848), 158. Washing Method (New York: Benedict Lust Oxford University Press, 2002), 25-48 34 Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms 9 Publishing Company, 1923), Special Collections, 10 Waldron family papers, MC 777, Rutgers (1850), 157. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New University Special Collections and University 35 Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms 13 Jersey (pamphlet). Archives (1852), 144. 58 Whorton, Nature Cures, 217 11 F. Gauntt F., "Reports from Burlington County," 36 Edward Bulwer Lytton, Extracts from Sir E. 59 The First National University of Naturopathy Transactions of the Medical Society of New Bulwer Lytton's Confessions and Observations of (Newark: First National University of Jersey (1854):584-94 (quotation 594). a Water-Patient, Letter to the New Monthly Naturopathy,1930), Special Collections and 12 Wickes, Hasbrouck, Gauntt, "Report," 121-2. Magazine, To Which is Appended: A Description University Archives, Rutgers University Archives 13 Newark Daily Patriot, 1 November, 1865. of the Orange Mountain Water-Cure (ca 1851), and Special Collections 14 Medical and Surgical Directory of the United Rutgers University Archives and Special (brochure). States (Detroit: R.L. Polk, 1886), 598; Cowen, Collections. 60 E.L.B. Godfrey, "Typhoid Fever: Its Relation to Medicine and Health, 72. 37 Weiss and Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, Water Supplies, with Observations Concerning its 15 Whorton, Nature Cures, 49-75 139-42. Treatment," Transactions of the Medical Society 16 Samuel W. Butler, comp., Medical Register and 38 Stephen Wickes, "Water-Cure in Orange," of New Jersey (1900): 73-82. Directory of the United States, 1874 Transactions of the Medical Society of New 61 "Back to Nature," Journal of the Medical Society (Philadelphia: Office of the Medical and Surgical Jersey (1861): 68-76. of New Jersey 3 (1906): 27 Reporter, 1874), 451-3. 39 Weiss and Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, 62 William Osler, Thomas McCrae, Modern 17 H. Genet Taylor, "President's Address," 143-5 Medicine: Its Theory and Practice (Philadelphia: Transactions of the Medical Society of New 40 Ibid., 146-50 Lea Brothers, 1907), 422-3 Jersey (1889): 61-77 (quotation 71) 41 Ibid., 218, 95. 63 Jack M. Zislis, "Hydrotherapy," in Frank H. 18 Cowen, Medicine and Health, 129-30. 42 Whorton, Nature Cures, 101. Krusen ed., Handbook of Physical Medicine and 19 Harry B. Weiss and Howard R. Kemble, The 43 Peggy Carroll, St. Frances: The First 100 Years Rehabilitation (Philadelphia: Saunders, 1965), Great American Water-Cure Craze (Trenton: The (Denville, NJ: S.S.M. HealthCare Ministry, 1995), 328-339. Past Times Press, 1967), v, 13. Special Collections, University of Medicine and 64 Jack R. Ewalt, Edward A. Strecker, Franklin G. 20 The Medical Examiner and Record of Medical Dentistry of New Jersey. Ebaugh, Practical Clinical Psychiatry, 8th ed. Science (Philadelphia), 7 (1844), cited in Weiss 44 Simon Baruch, An Epitome of Hydrotherapy for (New York: McGraw Hill, 1957), 358-9. and Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, 47-8. Physicians, Architects and Nurses (Philadelphia: 65 Whorton, Nature Cures, 200. 21 Vegetarian Society of America, Food, Home, and W.B. Saunders, 1920), 111-6. Garden 3 (1891): n.p. Verbatim typed copy: 45 Weiss and Kemble, Great American Water-Cure, Papers, Weiss, Harry B., 1932-69; Rutgers 103-6. University Archives and Special Collectons. 46 Advertisement in Medical Directory of New York,

Fountains of Youth O Sandra W. Moss, MD, MA O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 2 O December 2008