John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg (born February 26, 1852 in Tyrone Township , Michigan , † December 14, 1943 in Battle Creek , Michigan) was an American doctor, one of the inventors of peanut butter and, together with his brother Will Keith Kellogg, is the inventor of Corn flakes . He wrote several books on health issues and nutrition and ran his own sanatorium . Together with his brother Will, he founded the Sanitas Food Company , which began producing Kellogg's cornflakes in 1897 .
biography
Kellogg was born to farmer John Preston Kellogg and Ann Janette Stanley. The parents belonged to the Protestant Free Church of the Seventh-day Adventists and reportedly had 16 children, 8 of whom died early. His father already had five children from his first marriage. In about 1856 the family moved to Battle Creek, then the headquarters of this free church. There she ran a small shop and a broom making shop. After graduating from high school, Kellogg initially wanted to become a teacher, and at the age of 16 he taught for a year in Hastings , Michigan. However, he then attended high school in Battle Creek and in 1872 a teaching program for teachers at Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti .
The Adventists, who rejected academic medicine of the time, funded medical training for several young members, including Kellogg. He completed a five-month course at Russell Trall , an alternative practitioner in Florence Heights ( New Jersey ). Kellogg then attended the University of Michigan Medical School and then New York University Medical College in New York City . The study was paid for by the married couple James and Ellen White , both founding members of the Adventists; they owned the Health Reforme Institute at Battle Creek , founded in 1866 . In 1875 Kellogg obtained his doctorate in medicine and shortly afterwards took over the medical management of the institute.
From 1874 Kellogg was also the publisher of the monthly Adventist magazine Health Reformer , in which he published numerous articles of his own. In 1879 he changed the name to Good Health . In 1874, Kellogg published his first book, Proper Diet for Man, promoting a vegetarian diet. The book Plain Facts about Sexual Life followed in 1877 . In the following years he also gave numerous lectures on health and nutrition.
In 1879 he married Ella Ervina Eaton (1853–1920). By his own admission, this marriage was never consummated sexually; in his writings, he advocated basic sexual abstinence . As a result, the couple had no biological children and also lived in separate apartments, but took over 40 children into the “family” over time, seven of whom were also adopted.
Although Kellogg had been brought up as an Adventist and had professed the principles and beliefs of this free church all his life, a conflict arose which led to his exclusion from membership in 1907. He had published a book in 1903 called Living Temple , the content of which was allegedly inconsistent with the views of the Church. Then Kellogg continued to run the sanatorium independently from the Adventists.
Battle Creek Sanatorium
In Battle Creek, Michigan, Kellogg took over the Health Institute from Ellen White in 1876 and renamed it a sanatorium . At this point it was about to close due to low occupancy. In the sanatorium, Kellogg devoted himself to so-called holistic (holistic) methods with a special emphasis on vegetarian nutrition , hydrotherapy , enemas and physical exercises . Like the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventists, he was a supporter of so-called natural hygiene , which fundamentally rejected the methods of medicine. The sanatorium became famous under Kellogg's leadership and by 1900 had 700 beds.
This alternative medicine branch developed various theories about the origins of diseases and the conditions for health. An important theory was that of the body's self-poisoning (toxemia) . Kellogg was convinced that 90 percent of all illnesses ultimately came from the stomach and intestines , triggered by improper diet and lifestyle. In his view, eating meat, consuming alcohol and coffee, smoking, spices and living out sexuality were “wrong” . This wrong way of life leads to the development of poisonous substances in the intestines and as a result to the general weakening of the body.
As a result, Kellogg prescribed a strict vegetarian diet to his patients in the sanatorium , supplemented by the cornflakes he had invented and daily enemas to cleanse the colon; Yoghurt was partially added to the water, which should have a beneficial effect on the intestinal flora . In stubborn cases, he removed part of the bowel. If none of these measures showed the desired healing success, Kellogg often blamed the patient's secret masturbation for it. 97 pages of his 664-page work on sexuality with the title Plain Facts for Old and Young are devoted to masturbation or its prevention, which he called the secret vice ("the secret sin").
In 1891 he presented his Electric Light Bath - the world's first infrared heat cabin .
Kellogg believed that tooth damage and constipation were mainly due to insufficient chewing. So he instructed his patients to chew thoroughly, for which he first used rusks . In 1878 he invented Granula, double-baked whole grains, which developed into today's granola or crunchy muesli. From 1894 he and his brother Will Keith Kellogg developed a firm wheat product, later known as cornflakes .
The first cornflakes came on the table in his hospital on March 7, 1897. Applications in the sanatorium also included baths in cold water with the addition of radium, as well as the use of a “vibrating chair” invented by Kellogg. The success rate of the cures in Battle Creek was, according to him, very high; According to critics, however, seriously ill people were not even admitted. Most of the patients were overweight and constipated .
The sanatorium has also been visited by a few celebrity patients, including Henry Ford , actress Sarah Bernhardt , Thomas Alva Edison, and pilot Amelia Earhart . Around 1200 patients came annually around 1920. However, Kellogg took over financially through a structural expansion in 1927, and when significantly fewer guests came to Battle Creek as a result of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, he had to close the sanatorium in 1938. At that point he was in debt of $ 3 million.
The 1993 published novel The Road to Wellville of TC Boyle is a fictional satirical story about Kellogg and its sanatorium. The book was filmed under the title Welcome to Wellville , directed by Alan Parker , and released in theaters in 1994. Anthony Hopkins stars as Kellogg in the lead role .
Cornflakes and other products
In 1897 John Harvey and Will Kellogg founded the Sanitas Food Company in Battle Creek, which produced the famous corn flakes. At the time in the United States, a sumptuous English-style breakfast was common with bacon and eggs and porridge . After Will Keith began adding sugar to his cornflakes in 1906, the brothers fell out over it and never spoke again. Will started his own company, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company , which later became the Kellogg Company . John Harvey Kellogg now also dedicated himself to the production and marketing of soy products by the Battle Creek Food Company . He also developed substitute products for coffee and meat , one of them with the taste of beef steak .
Kellogg's views on sexuality
During his lifetime he was seen as a champion of health and sexual abstinence . He also resolutely rejected masturbation, which he made responsible for various diseases and which children should be systematically prevented from. Kellogg also recommended drastic methods and the routine circumcision of young boys, as the increased insensitivity of the glans prevents masturbation.
“One remedy for masturbation that is almost always successful with young boys is circumcision. The surgery should be performed by a doctor without anesthesia because the brief pain has a beneficial effect, especially when it is associated with thoughts of punishment. In girls, the author has found, the treatment of the clitoris with undiluted carbolic acid ( phenol ) is excellently suited to reduce unnatural arousal. "
Kellogg said he was completely celibate. But he started every day with an enema , a habit that some psychologists classify as clismaphilia ( increasing sexual pleasure through enemas). He would therefore be a person who focused his entire sexuality on receiving and administering enemas. Carrie McLaren writes in a critical article about Kellogg: “It's quite likely, though, that the doctor was in some way dysfunctional (…). After breakfast every morning, he had an orderly give him an enema. This may mean he had klismaphilia, an anomaly of sexual functioning traceable to childhood in which an enema substitutes for regular sexual intercourse. " (Translated: It is likely that the doctor (Kellogg, erg.) was in some way dysfunctional (...) Every morning after breakfast he had an enema from an employee. That could mean that he had a clismaphilia, a Deviation from sexual behavior (...) in which the enema replaces sexual intercourse.)
Publications (selection)
- Plain Facts for Old and Young: Embracing the Natural History ad Hygiene of Organic Life (1877)
- Treatments for Self-Abuse and its Effects, Plain Facts for Old and Young (1888)
- Ladies Guide in Health and Disease (1893)
- The Art of Massage (1895)
- Rational Hydrotherapy (1903)
- Needed - A New Human Race (1914)
- The Eugenics Registry (1915)
- Autointoxination or Intestinal Toxemia (1922)
- Tobaccoism or How Tobacco kills (1923)
- New Dietetics: A Guide to Scientific Feeding in Health and Disease (1927)
Quotes
- A dead cow or sheep lying in a pasture is recognized as carrion. The same sort of a carcass dressed and hung up in a butcher's stall passes as food. (A dead cow or sheep in a pasture is considered a carcass. The same carcass in a butcher's shop is considered food.)
- Is God a man with two arms and legs like me? Does He have eyes, a head? Does he have bowels? Well I do, and that makes me more wonderful than He is! (Is God a person with two arms and legs like me? Does he have eyes, a head? Does he have an intestine? Well, I am, and that's why I'm more wonderful than him!)
literature
- Albert Wirz: Morals on the plate. Depicted in the life and work of Max Bircher Benner and John Harvey Kellogg. Chronos Verlag, 1993, ISBN 3-905311-10-0 .
Web links
- Photos of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
- ZEIT article on Kellogs (2003)
- Article about Kelloggs and the Cornflakes (2003) (PDF file; 77 kB)
- Obituary in the New York Times
- Carrie McLaren: Porn Flakes - Kellogg, Graham and the Crusade for Moral Fiber
- The Art of Massage JH Kellogg 1895
Individual evidence
- ^ Moritz Honert: Gold from the sheet. In: Der Tagesspiegel, November 8, 2015, p. S3.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kellogg, John Harvey |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American doctor and inventor of corn flakes |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 26, 1852 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tyrone , Michigan |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 14, 1943 |
| Place of death | Battle Creek , Michigan |