The Leicester (England) Sanitarium by A. B. Olsen

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 15, 1909

The Leicester (England) Sanitarium

By A. B. Olsen

About six years ago, Mrs. Olsen and I conducted a good health school in Leicester, under the auspices of the local vegetarian society. The lectures and demonstrations were given in the Y. M. C. A. hall, and there was a large interest manifested by the numerous people who attended. Among those especially interested were Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Goddard, both of whom were life abstainers, and also vegetarians, Mr. Goddard being a non-smoker as well. On the third day of the school, we were invited to a lunch at the Midland Sanatorium, a large double-fronted house located in the heart of the town, close to the residence of the mayor.

The Midland Sanatorium had been run for several years as a “water-cure,” part of the time in charge of a hydropathist who had no medical education, and later under the management of Dr. English, who had recently resigned. The building was amply and well furnished throughout, but lacked proper bath-rooms and bath-room appliances.

Mr. Goddard offered us the free use of the building, with its complete furnishing, including linen, table ware, etc.; and also offered to build suitable bath-rooms, and to connect them directly with the house, provided we would take the institution, and run it as a sanitarium. This offer was afterward confirmed by writing, and the matter was put before the British Conference committee, and later before the General Conference Committee, and accepted, the General Conference Committee making the generous donation of fifteen hundred dollars with which to start the work.

The bath-rooms were built according to a plan drawn up and presented to Mr. Goddard, and the place was formally opened by the mayor of Leicester the following February, 1904. Until two years ago, the sanitarium was in charge of Drs. F. C. and E. S. Richards. On their accepting the call to Australia in December, 1906, two nurses, Brother and Sister W. M. Scott, graduates of the Caterham Sanitarium, were placed in charge of the institution.

Since the house contains only about eight or nine bedrooms for guests, it was thought wise to give most attention to outside patronage, and with this purpose in view, Brother and Sister Scott made a systematic canvass of the members of the medical profession in Leicester. The success of this canvass was far better than had been anticipated, for, without a single exception, all the doctors visited showed a real interest, and offered to co-operate by sending patients, and by giving the institution their patronage. Thus, within a comparatively short time, the out-patients began to increase steadily in number, and this increase has gone on satisfactorily, so that the number of outside patients for 1908 was fully double that of the preceding year.

Recognizing the importance of having the best modern physiological apparatus and a thoroughly up-to-date equipment, the board of managers has provided liberally for the Leicester Sanitarium, and it now possesses the best medical equipment of any of our British institutions.

Thanks to the generosity of the owner, Mr. Goddard, there is no rent to pay other than five dollars a year, to make the contract binding. During the past two years, the institution has enjoyed much success in every way, and it has not only been able to treat a large number of patients, and many of these at a much reduced rate, and in some cases without payment, but it has also been able to meet its running expenses and to provide necessary improvements and additional apparatus. Last year there was a profit above all expense of more than five hundred dollars; and the previous year the gain was nearly as much.

We feel thankful to God for the kind providence that has been over the Leicester Sanitarium and for the measure of success granted to us. Through the influence of the institution, many souls have had brought to them a knowledge of the truth of God in all its fulness, and we are glad to say that some of these have fully accepted its principles and identified themselves with our people. We trust that many more will gain for themselves, not only an increase of better health and strength, but also healing for the sin-sick soul, and will awake to a newness of life in Christ Jesus which they have never known before.

The workers consist of Brother and

Sister Scott; the head nurses, Brother Lionel Brooking and Sister Hannah Howarth, and four members of the freshman nurses’ training class, two young men and two young women, with the writer as superintendent.

It is our plan to conduct one year of the nurses’ training-school at Leicester, after which a new class is taken in, the old nurses coming to Caterham to do their second and third years; and this arrangement has been found to work satisfactorily. We hope the day will come when we shall have many such self-supporting health institutions scattered throughout the large cities of this great kingdom. But the greatest need we feel is that of having consecrated workers.

A. B. OLSEN, M. D.