The Mission of Hygienists.
By John Harvey Kellogg
It would seem that the aim and scope of a movement which has been in progress so long as the one in which we are engaged, should be by this time so well understood that any attempt at such a definition as we propose to make in this article would be wholly superfluous. That such is not the case, however, is the conclusion which constantly forces itself upon us as the result of repeated observations. If we may judge from the pointed, caustic paragraphs which are constantly appearing in popular journals, magazines, and newspapers (and these are but the echoes of public sentiment), we may justly conclude that in the eyes of a large majority of individuals, health reformers are looked upon as a horde of insurgents against human happiness; a set of stoics whose flinty natures delight in depriving life of all its pleasures; monomaniacs in whom the promptings of reason and sound judgment are totally eclipsed by the chemical fancies of a disordered brain; iconoclasts who delight in repudiating and attacking everything which has received the sanction of custom. The object of this article is not to deny in toto the justness of such representations as we have just referred to, although we are glad to believe that they are false as regards the great mass of hygienists; for we fear that there has been, unfortunately, far too much occasion for the prevalence of such views. It is to the probable origin of such prejudicial notions that we wish to call attention. Perhaps the greatest misfortune common to all reformations is the fact that the novelty of the movement attracts to its ranks a certain number of hot-headed fanatics who eagerly seize upon every favorable opportunity for making a raid upon established usages, and who delight in exhibiting and cultivating oddity and eccentricity. Such individuals do not fail to announce their peculiar views upon every possible occasion, presenting them in the most obtrusive and repulsive manner. By so doing they not only disgrace themselves in the eyes of all sensible persons, but also bring reproach upon the cause to which they claim adherence, and thus upon each individual member connected with it. We are often pained to meet with the most conclusive evidence that there are quite too many characters of this stamp within our ranks; and we here enter an earnest protest that such individuals shall not be considered as representatives of the true character of the movement. Another evil which has been the curse of every reformation, from man's first emergence from barbarism to the present moment, is the tendency to extremes which seems to be inherent in the human mind. A suspended body which is by any means drawn from a perpendicular, when released, quickly oscillates to a point nearly as far from the perpendicular, on the opposite side. So with men whose minds are deficient in intellectual ballast; the momentum which they acquire in breaking away from the chains of habit and time-honored customs, drives them far beyond the equipoise of truth; and thus they defeat the purpose which first prompted a reform, and find their latter state as bad as the former, or even worse. We need scarcely say that the cause of health reform is daily suffering from the ignominy and opprobrium occasioned by the absurd freaks and ultra notions of this class of pseudo-reformers. In a future article we will attempt to define more clearly what we characterize as extreme or ultra. But there is still another cause which we have become convinced is operating still more powerfully against the interests of this movement than either of those yet mentioned, and to which we shall venture to refer, although sensible that we are running some risk of incurring the displeasure of many who honestly consider themselves as valiant champions of the cause; viz., what seems to be a vindictive spirit against the whole medical profession, together with the totality of their teachings, on the part of a certain class of persons who are always ready with a volley of wholesale denunciations of every M. D. who carries a pill box. Such a course only excites contempt, and is beneath the dignity of a true reformer who claims to have logic and common sense on his side. We may rejoice in the glorious light of health reform, which gives us true notions of the nature of disease, its cause, and rational treatment; but it will not do for us to allow ourselves to become egotistical and conceited. A health reformer should be of all men the last to look with contempt upon science and its votaries. Without science, health reform would not be in existence. It is only through the instrumentality of the arduous labors and researches of scientific men that we have been delivered from the gross empiricism and superstition of the dark ages. It should be distinctly understood that health reform is not a crusade against science. Neither is it a raid upon the medical profession. All the progress in the treatment of disease, and all the improvement in public hygiene have come through the profession; and whatever may be said concerning many of the deductions of so-called medical science, it cannot be disputed that modern medicine presents a collection of facts relating to the causes, natural history, and characteristic symptoms of individual diseases which are of infinite value to the human family, and which demand the respect of every intelligent person. Health reform embraces all that is true and reliable concerning the relations of health and disease to habits of life and material surroundings. It gathers the rays of truth from every quarter, and radiates them wherever its influence extends. It has no issue with individuals, it only deals with principles. We have good feelings and wishes for all, and welcome with joy every token of the progress of truth and the exposure of error.—J. H. K., in Health Reformer.