The Melrose Sanitarium by George B. Starr

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 11, 1913

The Melrose Sanitarium

By George B. Starr

EVERY year a larger number and a finer class of young people are entering our training course. Every year we are raising our standard a little higher, and God is hearing and answering our prayers and sending us helpers whose hearts respond to the plans for wider and more aggressive work. Every year the training is made more practical than the last. The spiritual phases are strengthened, the Bible classes increased and broadened.

This year a seminar has been added, in which the nurses in training present the truth in all its phases, the medical and dietetic, in short talks, weaving in what they are daily learning in anatomy, physiology, hygiene, and hydrotherapy, also the Bible doctrines and Christian experience. These same nurses assist in schools of health outside the institution, and in the parlor talks to the patients one evening each week; and the people and the patients enjoy their efforts. They are more interested when three or four persons, especially the nurses in uniform, present a subject, each clearly dwelling upon some one or two points, than they are when only one covers the same ground. As the result, several nurses are gaining a valuable experience.

Doors are opening everywhere. Even the farmers are reaching for the light on dietetic reform, and inquiring what to feed their children to obtain “a better crop of boys and girls.” Dr. Hopkins and the writer were invited to speak before the Pomona Grange in Wellesley, Mass., November 12, at their annual meeting, on the topic “Food Values of Grains, Fruits, and Nuts for the Human Machine.” We, with Mrs. Starr and others from the sanitarium, took dinner with them, and mingled in friendly intercourse with the one hundred and sixty-four intelligent farmers and their wives present. They stated that a talk given by the writer one year ago, on the best food for man and the postponement of old age, had been one of the topics of conversation at every meeting during the year. The doctor and I both felt free in speaking the plain truth to these people, and it was well received. A quantity of literature was sold and given away.

The sanitarium still continues to hold a steady patronage, keeping close to the sixty-patient mark. During the summer it reached ninety.

The coming of Elder and Mrs. Garton has been a blessing to the sanitarium. Elder Garton is a good Bible teacher and a burden-bearer, and his help has enabled the faculty to plan for a greatly increased field work. Three days each week, from two to three nurses in training spend the entire day visiting among the people, from house to house, scattering literature, helping in the Harvest Ingathering, and in the schools of health. The writer and his wife spend the same time visiting former patients, ministers of the gospel, physicians, presidents and secretaries of various societies, etc.

G. B. STARR.