The History of Baths

Natropathy in Bathing Part 2

Sanatorium visitors engaged in deep breathing exercises and mealtime marches to aid proper digestion. He installed an enema machine that could rapidly give a series of enemas, applying fifteen gallons of water to a bowel in fifteen seconds. Every patient had a water enema followed by a pint of yoghurt, the first half was eaten and the remainder was given as a second enema. Kellogg was clearly an advocate of probiotic health! Kellogg believed that most disease is caused by a change in the type of intestinal flora. Pathogenic bacteria produced toxins, in the gut that poisoned the blood, and poor diet made the condition worse. He believed that intestinal fauna is changed by diet and a well-balanced vegetarian diet low in protein, and high in fibre changed the content of the intestine.

"The putrefactive changes which recur in the undigested residues of flesh foods" John Kellogg

John Kellogg also was an early pioneer in the damage caused by tobacco long before the health link was even thought of never mind studied. Along with nutritionist Horace Fletcher, Kellogg brought about greater dietary awareness and fostered a fledgling health food industry. Although he was not the first to have made corn flakes, he was the first to advocate its use as a breakfast food.

These physical culture innovations were complemented by the formation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1874) and the Anti-Saloon League (1893). In 1866 Mary Baker Eddy, once a sufferer from poor health believed that spiritual revelations had regenerated her physical health, and led her to found the Christian Science movement (1879) in Boston.

Hydrotherapy, practiced by the ancient Greeks and later popularized by the Romans at such resorts as Bath in England, enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 19th century in the form of “water cures,” first in home-based versions and later at mountain retreats and spas in New York, West Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia and Aachen. Here the middle and upper classes could escape the stresses of industrial life by “taking the mineral waters.” Naturism or nudism, began in Germany in 1903, it was a controversial offshoot of the quest for health.

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