Curing by Hygiene (1887)

AUTHOR: Dodds, Susanna Way

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen)

“Curing by Hygiene” advocates for the treatment of disease by natural means rather than drugs or medicine, which Dodds claims “only poison the blood” (85). She argues by way of analogy: just as immoral actions can only be atoned for by ceasing to sin and starting “to do well,” that is, “leav[ing] off wrong-doing, and tak[ing] to right-doing” (85), so it is with physical health. In order “to maintain good health we must obey the laws of our being. To regain lost health, we must return to the very same thing; viz., obedience to physiological law” (85). Doing so entails “purify[ing]” the blood “by correct living” (85), which includes as much “pure air” and “sunshine” as possible. It also means avoiding “snug clothing” so as not to interfere with the activities of the skin. And, importantly, it includes proper nutrition: no “stimulants” and no “[a]nimal foods” (86), as these “do not begin to compare with the products of old mother earth; the substantial grains, the choice fruits, and even the vegetables. These, well prepared, are clean foods, and you feel clean after you have eaten them” (86). With meats, in contrast, “you swallow a large per cent of excretory matter; waste substance, that the animal was throwing off from its own tissues” (86).