HOME AGAIN by S. A. Doud

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 23, 1867

HOME AGAIN.

By S. A. Doud

To my sisters in Tuscola Co., and especially those who knew that I was going to the Health Institute, at Battle Creek, and wished me to see for them, I would address these lines. I should be glad to visit you all, and tell you what I saw and learned that might be of use to you, but the bad going makes that an impossibility. I found the Institute all that it claims to be, and much more. I think the queen’s expression after beholding the wisdom of Solomon would apply, that is, “the half was not told.” Although my stay was short, this I learned; that the Physicians are kind, and considerate, having the welfare of their patients at heart, and that they practise till they preach. Some of us have thought that a good deal was said upon the subject of Health Reform, diet, and dress reform, and wondered whether they lived it out themselves or not, and how they did it, as nearly every thing we had to eat was unwholesome. It seemed to us that the bill of fare consisted of graham bread, potatoes, apple-sauce and water, and these must be used very temperately, or sparingly; and one would expect to see a half starved set of beings. In this I was happily disappointed. Webster defines diet thus, “to supply with food,” and thus they practice. The patients sit down to well filled tables of good, warm food, and eat with gladness. I say good because I could eat all I wished without being inconvenienced afterward; but let an individual sit down to eat, having a perverted appetite, and he would look in vain for dainties, and think the food was tasteless stuff; and while he was looking, and thinking, the rest having a will, would eat a hearty meal.

Another thing I learned was that Hygiene means more than baths, and graham bread; that air, rest and good nature are constituents, and as Webster has it, “that department of medicine that treats of the preservation of health.” So it is. The sick ones recover, and the well ones keep well. Their motto is, “Our Physician, Nature. Obey and live.” The reform dress has a Bloomerish look at first sight that is not pleasing, but when I observed how warm and comfortable the ladies were, and how easily they could get around with nothing to impede their locomotion, I forgot all about the Bloomeries, and thought the reform dress was the dress, and could adopt the sentiment of a gentleman at one of the health conventions while I was there; “To the Ladies: May their shadow never grow less, excepting that made by their dress.”

I will add in conclusion that as many as may desire patterns, I will try to accommodate, and will also give what information I can to help, expecting that those who are sick, and are trying to live hygienically, will adopt the reformed dress to help them get well, and those who are well will wear it to keep so. Those who do not take the Reformer are not aware how much valuable information they are losing. May it soon find its way into the home of every lover of present truth.

S. A. Doud.

Tuscola Co., Mich.