It is interesting to note that in the bylaws of the first medical institution founded by the Seventh-day Adventists in September, 1866, Article 1, Section 1, states, "The object of this institute is to treat disease upon hygienic principles, and give instruction in the theory and practice of the recovery and preservation of health."—Review and Herald, May 28, 1867.
The denominational medical missionary year book issued in 1896, covering the development of the first thirty years, also contains statements of fundamental importance in respect to the objectives of our medical endeavor, and verifies the fact that Seventh-day Adventists have, from the beginning, sought to base all medical practice and health teaching upon a sound physiological basis.
A basic principle found in this early document states that "disease is the result of a violation of natural law, and can be radically cured only by the employment of rational measures whereby the provoking causes may be removed."—"Medical Missionary Year Book," 1896, p. 9.
A second idea prominent in the objectives of our first medical institutions is one which modern health workers stress today, but which was little regarded in that early time; namely, "the necessity for the instruction of both the sick and the well in the principles of healthful living, so that health, when once recovered, might be maintained through the avoidance of the causes of disease."—Ibid.
In this same report we read the statement that "it is scarcely to be supposed that the founders of the enterprise, though• persons of broad ideas and liberal minds, were able fully to comprehend the significance of the work which was inaugurated in the establishment of this first institution." In the brief span of thirty years these ideas had, through the various lines of work of the pioneers, "well-nigh encircled the globe," the record reads in this early volume, "and now is rapidly reaching out into both civilized and uncivilized regions of the earth."—Id., p.10.
Institutions or medical missions in 1896 were located in six States of the Union: Michigan, California, Illinois, Nebraska, Oregon, and Colorado ; and in nine foreign countries : Switzerland, Mexico, South, Central, and West Africa, India, Australia, South Ameiica, and Cook Island, as well as the islands of Samoa and Hawaii. To further establish the historical fact that this medical work was built on a sound scientific foundation we quote the following:
"All its methods of treatment and regimen are... embodied in the fact that restoration to health is not to be secured by swallowing pills, regular or irregular, nor by the use of patent medicines or nostrums, nor indeed by any other means than by the removal of the causes of disease, and the cultivation of health. The education of the invalid, and the training of the body by proper regimen, judicious diet, suitable exercise, etc., constitute the only means by which the cure of chronic maladies can be effected. To accomplish this, all the patient's habits of life must be controlled, and brought to conform to such principles as will modify his disordered propensities in the most effectual manner.
"Such a plan requires the most thoroughgoing investigation of each individual case, to facilitate which the managers of the institution have provided extensive laboratories for chemical and other lines of research, including the study of germs, or bacteria, in their relation to health and disease. Many new and important discoveries have been made in these laboratories, and the facilities thus afforded have been found to be of inestimable value in the investigation of obscure cases, and as a guide in the treatment of many classes of chronic diseases."—Id., pp. 19, 20.
"The erroneous idea generally prevails that medical missionary work consists solely in the performance of surgical operations and the administration of medicine. Surgical work and the judicious use of proper remedies constitute a very important part of the duties of the medical missionary, and doubtless in many instances, the medical missionary confines his labors almost wholly to surgical work and making medicinal prescriptions. But there is much more than this to be done. The medical missionary who seeks his field among the natives of heathen lands, finds his patients laboring under superstitions of the grossest character respecting the body, its functions, its diseases, and remedies for its ailments. These must be dispelled by proper instruction. Every case scientifically treated is an object lesson which draws a contrast between good and bad methods ; between science and ignorance ; between Christian civilization and idolatry with its barbarism."—Medical Missionary Journal, Editorial, January, 1891.
This was a day when homeopathy and allopathy flourished. and pills and potions were the stock in trade of a large number of practicing physicians. Bleeding to cure disease was quite general. The following interesting comment appeared on a case study of influenza published in 1851 in a New Orleans medical journal.
"When the suitable application of the tincture of iodine and water, in the manner above recommended, does not produce well-marked and evident relief at the end of twenty-five minutes, then nothing more can be expected from a longer perserverance in its use, and the increasing cough, hoarseness, anxiety, and dyspnoea of the patient must be met by other means. In such cases, I would advise the instant abstraction of blood from both arms; if the iodine fails to give relief, then more blood may be taken from the jugular veins."—New Orleans Medical Journal, February, 1851.
Many thoughtful men in the profession, however, even in these years, recognized the value of physical therapy in the preservation of health and in the treatment of disease. The fact is that the methods now called physical therapy would not be so sanely used as they are today had not many members of the profession, through controlled study and investigation, safeguarded its use and saved it from the control of the quack and the charlatan. It was not until recent years, however, that the medical profession as an organization earnestly sought to develop this rational use of physical agencies through well-organized educational plans. Through all these years when the old method of practicing medicine was in mid-passage, Seventh-day Adventist institutions and the workers who went out from these institutions were equipped in varying degrees of preparation to appreciate and make use of the healing agencies of water, sunlight, rest, exercise, diet, and trust in divine power in the treatment of the sick and in teaching the principles of healthful living.
In 1896 there were forty-six physicians under the supervision of this branch of the denominational organization. Seventh-day Adventist students of medicine in the school affiliated with the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, numbered seventy-nine. The first school of nursing was established in 1884 under the inspiration of Dr. Kate Lindsay, who, previous to her medical course, had taken a two-year pioneer course in nursing in a New Jersey institution, where physical therapy, as well as surgery and other current approved methods, was in use. She was largely the guiding hand and inspiration in this new educational venture in the institution at Battle Creek, which was at that time under denominational guidance and leadership. In the period of twelve years following the founding of this first school, 174 graduate nurses were employed in the medical institutions which had developed during the first quarter of a century.
Health journals had also made their appearance. Good Health, the Pacific Health Journal, the Gospel of Health; and the Medical Missionary were regular Seventh-day Adventist periodicals' of the day. The Medical Missionary Year Book of 1896 speaks of "our other health journals" (page 166), but we have no record or files to reveal the extent of all the health literature available from our presses at that early date.
The work continued to grow in all its branches and in all parts of the world field to such an extent that the further historical picture of the medical work in its various branches and in the various parts of the world field deserves individual record of the progress and part it played in the development of the missionary program. In subsequent reports we shall endeavor, as much as possible with the available records, to give such details as will be of interest. It will also be our endeavor as far as possible to set forth the methods and policies through which success or failure was seen in each undertaking.
History is valuable, not only as a record of progress, but to be studied, that we may be guided by the past in our plans for the future. The complete record of the medical history of this denomination would require volumes, but we will in this brief series seek to emphasize the special features of practical value to readers of the medical section of The Ministry.
K. L. J.
H. M. W.
