SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

This very short article, reprinted from the 1852 Water Cure Almanac, lists all maxims of health according to Nichols. It is prefaced by a short note welcoming the time “when a violation of the Physical laws is to be regarded as no less sinful than the violation of the moral laws.” His maxims of health all derive from his conviction that “[h]ealth is purity; and purity is a condition of health,” hence the varied applications of cold, pure water in the water-cure. The striving for purity must be extended to all aspects of life, including, in particular, clothing and diet. Thus, “[c]lothing, night and day, should give sufficient warmth, with perfect cleanliness, freedom of motion, and free transpiration. Feather beds, cotton comforters, oil-cloth and India rubber clothing, are civilized abominations” (15). Regarding food, Nichols notes that “man is not carnivorous, nor graminivorous; neither flesh-eating, nor grass-eating.” Rather, “[t]he natural diet of adult man consists of seeds, fruit, and roots – seeds, as wheat, rye, corn, rice, oats, nuts, etc.; fruit, as apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, etc; roots, as potatoes, beets, turnips, etc.” (15).