Post 741 - A Quick Overview of Battle Creek's Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his Influence, ca 1993

Dr. Kellogg had determined that his Biologic Living could take care of any complaint.  He had already decided that quinine was less effective than hydrotherapy for typhoid; so, when the depression hit, he decided to save money by walking into the San's pharmacy and firing the whole department.  Now, in Michigan, there is a law that states if a hospital has more than 25 beds, it is required to have an on-site pharmacist.  So a week or so later, Dr. Kellogg was in the situation of having to replace his pharmacy department.  Most of the staff had found jobs elsewhere, except for one of the technicians, who was still working at the San, but in physical therapy.  Dr. Kellogg tracked him down and put him in charge of the newly reorganized pharmacy department.  I suppose by doing this, you could say he anticipated today's methods of health care management.  By the way, the new employees of the pharmacy were encouraged to use the back entrances of the San.  

Dr. Kellogg made a point of commenting on the contemporary women's fashions of the 19th century.  He was especially disturbed with the use of corsets to get the "hour glass" figure so popular then, and made a point in his world travels of measuring the natural waistlines of the native population.  Constriction of the intestines interrupted the natural flow of things and could lead to autointoxication.  One day he set out to demonstrate this with an experiment on his wife's collie, fitting the dog with a patient's corset.  The dog had other ideas and took off.  Kellogg followed on his bicycle but the dog made it home first, still partially wearing the corset.  There is no documentation of the conversation that followed between the doctor and his wife, just as there is no record of how the doctor coaxed one of his patient's from her corset.

In the end, he was a man of contradictions.  While telling us we needed to relax, he worked upwards of 20 hours a day.  He wanted us to eat properly, but was erratic in his own diet.  He considered himself a philanthropist, but paid the lowest possible wages to his employees.  He wrote over 50 books, was foster father to over 40 children, performed over 10,000 surgeries, and put Battle Creek on the map before anyone ever heard of corn flakes, yet there is not a single monument, building, or street named for him.  Ultimately, he was a man of ideals and ideas, but a poor businessman who didn't have an effective plan to perpetuate his legacy.  

With George Bernard Shaw, mid 1920s