The Battle Creek Sanitarium - History, Organization, Methods #266513

This little brochure is presented to the medical public in response to the request of many physicians for a concise epitome of the organized curative methods which in recent years have come to be collectively known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium System.<br><br>After consideration it has seemed proper to comply with this request especially because of the surprise and interest manifested by hundreds of physicians who have visited the institution as guests and patients, - surprise because what they found was so different from what they had expected to find, and interest because of the number and variety of practical applications of the latest resources of scientific medicine here systematically employed.<br><br>An earnest effort has been made to present a picture of the work carried on at the Battle Creek Sanitarium as nearly as possible as it is daily seen in actual operation.<br><br>The existence throughout the country of institutions which have adopted the name "Sanitarium," although really nothing more than medical boarding-houses, has given to the medical profession as well as to the laity many wrong impressions concerning the character of a thoroughly scientific and up-to-date sanitarium. It seems but just that the profession, at least, should know that there "is a difference," that the name Sanitarium, originating here, has been widely exploited and in numberless instances most unworthily represented, and that there is a wide contrast between a scientific sanitarium and the growing multitude of institutions which imitate the name without duplicating the thing itself.<br><br>The generosity of the original founders of this institution in devoting all earnings to its equipment, operation, and betterment, and the altruistic spirit which has always dominated its board of managers, have rendered possible the building up of a scientific medical enterprise devoted forever to the public welfare in which the attempt is made -<br><br>First. - To put into active, effective, and systematic use every practical method which modern medical science has provided for the accurate determination of deviations from the normal standard of health in structure or function, and for the estimation of the amount of such variation, so far as possible expressing these variations by means of coefficients, so as to make exact comparisons possible.<br><br>Second. - To make available in most approved form every rational curative means known to medical science, so that the same may be brought to bear in any individual case, giving special prominence to physical therapy, or so-called physiologic therapeutics.<br><br>Third. - To combine with the special professional, technical, and institutional advantages of the modern hospital, the luxuries and comforts of the modern hotel, together with the genial atmosphere, security and freedom of the home.