A History of Medicine with a Focus on Mental Illness – Part 4
Later Middle Ages to Modern Times
(AD 1200 – AD 1900)
Introduction
In addition to revolutionizing medicine through the creation of hospitals, Christians revolutionized education. They had practiced from early on the teaching of women and the poor. Now, they would introduce higher learning in a way never seen before. Along the way, the investigative process was to be cultivated and encouraged. With few exceptions, the Roman and Greek cultures thought manual labor to be dishonorable and so discouraged physical investigation of their thoughts and theories. “Archimedes was ashamed for having built devices that aided his studies in geometry”(6). Christians would come to encourage the investigative process, leading to greater knowledge of science and medicine.
AD 1168-1253
Inductive Method Introduced
Robert Grosseteste was the first to propose the inductive method of experimentation. Robert was the first chancellor of Oxford University, and his new idea was a radical departure from the Greek method of only using deductive thinking(6) Inductive thinking basically laid the groundwork for the scientific method: a law of science must be definable, demonstrable, and repeatable to be a true law of science.
AD 1214-94
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon would further develop the inductive method. He would write, “all things must be verified by experience”(6). As a Christian, he believed the Bible was verifiable by experience as well.
AD 1270
First School of Medicine
Less than 100 years after the first university was established, a school of medicine was introduced.
Universities were being established for the first time in history. Even during the early days of the university system, a school of medicine was introduced in 1270 at the University of Paris. Schmidt said, “Paris specialized in theology, and in 1270 it added the study of medicine”(6)
AD 1285-1347
William of Occam
A Franciscan Monk, who formalized the concept of reducing excess assumptions to the point of getting to the reality of a matter, also known as Occam’s Razor, would greatly add to the scientific method. Occam would also concur with Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon about the use of inductive methodology. It should be noted that not everyone was happy with this break from Greek thought, and these ideas were not always immediately adopted by many.
Near to AD 1300
Closing of the Middle Ages
Mental Illness treatment began to grow more inhumane as the Middle Ages began to close. This did not happen overnight. Some have attributed this to Christians forgetting their roots and abandoning the original love that compelled them to first care for the sick(6). Also, as medicine became more secular and power was wrestled away from the church, the new secular practitioners often lost sight of Christ in their healing methods.
“But in the later Middle Ages, the earlier humane treatment of the mentally ill was slowly abandoned… The church, composed of sinners who often forgot that they professed to be Christians, did not always replicate the noble examples of its early predecessors. Commonly, the mentally disturbed were incarcerated in damp, filthy, dungeonlike asylums, where they were shackled because they were thought to be less than human. It was believed that they could be brought back to reason and sanity by physical punishment and chained confinement”(6).
More Monasteries Are Beginning to be Forced to Stop Practicing Medicine
It should also be noted that there was increasing pressure from some church leaders and secular leaders to have less care for the sick being under the charge of monasteries, and medical treatment was slowly becoming more secular. As the care for the mentally ill was becoming more secular, one has to wonder if this was at least part of the reason for the poor treatment creeping into the practice of mental illness treatment.
“A Church ban on monks practicing outside their monasteries gave the impetus to the training of lay physicians. It was contended that this interfered with the spiritual duties of monks. So, gradually, with the support of the city fathers, more cathedral cities began to provide large public hospitals. This moved medical care towards the secular domain”(6).
14th and 15th Centuries
1300AD-1499AD
Hospitals Spread
Hospitals had spread throughout Europe by the 14th Century. Schmidt says hospitals were referred to as “God’s House” in Britain and “House of the Holy Spirit” in Germany. He further stated,
“Hospitals had become quite plentiful by the fourteenth century in Europe. For instance, England alone, with less than four million people, had six hundred hospitals; France, Germany, and Italy each had even more”(6).
More Care
Care for the ill and mentally ill was a mixed bag of help and hindrance, with poor treatment and misguided efforts eventually getting the upper hand. Everything gained was not lost overnight. Although treatment for the mentally ill is often hard to ascertain in this time period, it is generally understood that treatment was less than loving.
New mental illness centers were being developed in this century in Europe. A refuge for the mentally ill was founded in London in 1369. An additional refuge existed in the early 1400’s. “It is also known that in the early 1400s a well-known refuge for the mentally disordered existed in London. What kind of treatments were employed is not known”(6).
AD 1300
Human Cadaver Dissection
Rather than speculate and try to deduce what the human body was like, forward thinkers would now begin to actually investigate. This idea did not happen overnight, and it was not without some resistance. However, the investigative process was eventually applied to medicine and human anatomy. Human dissection would lead to advances and understanding in health. This is applied inductive reasoning, where the thinkers decided to investigate how things really were.
“Not too long after the first universities arose, some schools engaged in empirical research. By 1300, for example, the University of Bologna (initially a law school) dissected human cadavers for forensic purposes to settle legal suits. The dissecting of human bodies soon spread to other universities that functioned as medical schools, for instance, Montpellier and Padua. And by 1396, King Charles VI in France ordained that each year a cadaver of a criminal be delivered to the faculty at Montpellier for anatomical study”(6).
Further studies on human cadavers continued.
AD 1409
Asylum for Mentally Ill in West
Little is known about the insane asylum founded by the Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem or what kind of treatment was given, but it did house the mentally ill in a hospital. “The Knights of the Order of Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem (Knights of Malta) not only operated and maintained hospitals, but also admitted the insane. They founded a Christian insane asylum in 1409 in Valencia, Spain”(6).
AD 1452-1519
Near Complete Drawing of Human Anatomy by DaVinci
After many years of dissecting human cadavers, often done illegally, Leonardo DaVinci has drawn a large collection of human anatomy. One historian says that “his drawings and comments, when collected in one massive volume, present a complete course of anatomical study(6). Up to this point in history, physicians had very little to go on as far as documented human anatomy.
Further, he studied and tested some of the theories of medicine that had been assumed true. For example, he tested the proposition by the Greek physician Galen (ca. 130-200) that air passes directly from the lungs to the heart. DaVinci used an air pump on a human cadaver and found the proposition to be false. It is not possible to force air directly from the lungs to the heart as had been supposed(6).
16th and 17th Centuries
1500AD-1699AD
Less Humane Treatment Now
The slide into more inhumane treatment of the mentally ill continued in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Forced incarceration of the mentally ill was all too common. Treatment was getting worse, and the ill were seen as spectacles by some people. According to Amen,
“In the 16th and 17th centuries, asylums were created to house the mentally ill against their will. Inmates, many of whom were chained and beaten, often lived in squalor. Sometimes they were even exhibited to those willing to pay a fee. They were also subjected to a host of arcane medical practices, such as purging, blistering, or bloodletting”(3).
It should be noted that purging, blistering, and bloodletting were not all that uncommon in medicine in general in many cases as well. According to what has been said, George Washington, the first president of the United States, died (1799 AD) as a result of bloodletting for the treatment of regular, non-mental illness symptoms. He had been having flu-like symptoms of chest congestion and such at the time.
At this time, King Henry VIII, at the beginning of the 16th century, would suppress the monasteries, leaving the city fathers to scramble for new ways to care for the sick. Rosie Knowles states:
“In England, Henry VIII’s suppression of the monasteries caused great suffering. Patients from hospitals that were founded and run by monastic orders were thrown onto the streets. The onus for healthcare was placed firmly on the city fathers, and municipalities were forced to pay more attention to the health problems of the community”(10).
AD 1500 – 1800
Renaissance → Enlightenment
| Alchemy evolves into chemistry.
| Minerals become “elements”; toxic minerals cause caution.
| Mineral knowledge begins to split into toxicology vs. nutrition. Still much to learn.
AD 1518
Royal College of Physicians in England
In 1518, Henry VIII issues a charter that took power from the church to regulate medicine and handed it over to the Royal College of Physicians.
AD 1524
The Growth of Hospitals Expands to the New World.
The first hospital founded in the New World was established by Hernando Cortes. According to Schmidt, the hospital movement continued through the building of Nazareth Hospital in Mexico.
“With Columbus’s discovery of America, the Christian concern for the sick and dying soon showed itself in the New World. Thus, in 1524 Hernando Cortes, the Conquistador, founded Jesus of Nazareth Hospital in Mexico City, which is still operative today. A few years later, in 1541, Zumarraga established a hospital that cared for the poor who were afflicted with venereal diseases. Soon a hospital was built for Indians. And by 1583 every principal town in the archdiocese of Mexico had a hospital, each with a priest who cared for the souls of the patients”(6).
AD 1561 – 1626
Francis Bacon
The first person to actually record the results of his inductive experiments was Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon is called the “practical creator of the scientific induction”(6) The hold of ancient pagan philosophy was beginning to wane as Bacon and others departed from “…the ancient Greek perspective of Aristotle (384– 322 B.C.). Aristotelianism, which had a stranglehold on the world for fifteen hundred years, held that knowledge was only acquired through the deductive processes of the mind; the inductive method, which required manual activity, was taboo”(6). Basically, the Greeks thought all manual labor to be undignified and not worthy of the free citizen. Only uneducated slaves could perform labor without guilt. Thus, all truth must come from other truths deductively only. Nothing could actually be put to experimentation.
AD 1600s to 1800s
Knowledge of Iron
The mineral iron gradually became known for its role in the body as being sometimes helpful. True knowledge of what it did is difficult to say for sure.
1618
Power Grab by Royal College of the Physicians
One hundred years after King Henry VIII gave power to the Royal College of the Physicians, they wanted to consolidate and increase their power.
After 100 years, in 1618, the Royal College mandated that all apothecaries had to follow the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis.
The text was written in Latin, which effectively put out of business anyone not skilled in the language. Many so-called quacks and those less formally educated could no longer operate. The Royal College of Physicians was happy.
AD 1649
Culpepper Translates the pharmacopoeia londinesis
Then, in 1649, Nicholas Culpepper published a translation of the book Pharmacopoeia Londinensis into English. The Latin text was little more than just a list of ingredients and simple recipes with no thought on how to use them. Culpeper enhanced his English translation with improvements that would help poorer and less educated people. While translating the book, he added several comments of his own about how silly the book was and added his own recipes and how to use them. Anyone who could read English now had access to the book.
Critics of his book were upset that people could now read it. Additionally, there were now actual recipes that individuals could try on their own without a physician.
In fact, the poor often had better care than the rich. The poor people often consulted the apothecaries and cunning men or cunning women for help. “Cunning” is the Old English word for knowledgeable or wise. Sometimes, the cunning man or woman would ascribe magic to their craft, but for the most part, this was not true. Many would just ascribe knowledge of the plant or herb. The rich could afford a doctor and often did not visit the cunning man or woman.
18th Century
Intro
Pressure to reform the mental asylums occurred in the 18th Century. At the same time, new hospitals were being founded in the New World in the colonies of England.
AD 1700s to 1799s
Calicium Becomes to be known as benefitial
During this century, calcium would come to be recognized as a beneficial human mineral.
AD 1709
Second Hospital Founded in the American English Colonies
A hospital in New York was already in operation for medical conditions in general. Now, in 1709, a new hospital would be founded that included treatment of the mentally ill.
“… in 1709, the Association of Friends (Quakers) in the United States, erected a general hospital in Philadelphia that housed ‘lunaticks.’ This was one of the two hospitals in the United States, mentioned earlier”(6).
AD 1745 – 1826
Pinel’s Reforms in France
Places for the treatment of the mentally ill had been growing more and more inhumane. It was this cruel treatment of people that caught the attention of Phillipe Pinel (1745 to 1820). Pinel was called insane for his bold and loving approach, but really, it was Pinel who was operating without fear and anxiety. Historian Schmidt described Pinel’s reforms. He was a timid French physician who had formally been a divinity student. He firmly believed the mentally ill were just that, ill people. They were not animals or somehow less than human.
“[Pinel] entered the asylum at Bicetre, France, defied the authorities, and cut loose the chains of some of the inmates, an act thought to be insane. He not only cut their chains, but also showed the inmates love and kindness. The response was amazingly civil and restrained. As a Christian, Pinel showed compassion reminiscent of Jesus’ acts toward the sick and ailing. The Frenchman’s unusual behavior produced a real paradigm shift with respect to treating the mentally disturbed. His actions once again show the powerful impact that Christ, through his followers, has had upon the world”(6).
Around AD 1776
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, also reformed the conditions of the mentally ill. As a physician, he is “considered the father of American psychiatry.” He established a more “benevolent approach, unshackling patients, forbidding beatings, and lobbying for improved living conditions in Pennsylvania”(3). He wanted to do more than just house the mentally ill. He wanted to treat them like any people with illness would be treated, but he had limited medical knowledge of how to do so, though he employed numerous techniques. According to Amen,
“In his book, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind, he wrote that hypochondriasis, a form of melancholia or modern-day depression, needed to be treated by ‘direct and drastic interferences’ that involved ‘assaulting the patient’s mind and body’ in an attempt to reset their constitution. He recommended that doctors ‘plumb’ patients’ systems by bleeding (leeches), blistering, and cupping … Rush also prescribed drugs, like mercury, arsenic, and strychnine—now known to be poisonous—to induce vomiting and diarrhea and suggested fasting for two or three days. Once the body was cleaned out, he recommended stimulants, such as tea and coffee, ginger, and black pepper in large doses; magnesia, mustard rubs; hot baths to induce sweating followed by cold baths; and exercise”(3).
AD 1789
Eugenics Movement Begins
The Eugenics Movement began with the madness of King George III of England. Correctly ascertaining that mental illness had a hereditary aspect to it, many began to think they could improve society by forcing sterilization of the mentally ill and other less than well, like the “feebleminded.” This was a widespread belief throughout Western societies and countries. It was part of the thinking that some would use to propose abortion to “improve” society as well, and it also led to the Nazi holocaust and all the cruelty that came with it, including experimenting on humans who were seen as less than “superior.”
“This crisis triggered physicians at England’s insane asylums to begin looking into the inheritance patterns of mental illness. Long before the discovery of DNA, doctors started collecting family histories of the insane, criminals, and those with intellectual disabilities among those in the asylums, prisons, and schools for ‘feebleminded’ children… Asylum superintendents, legislators, and social reformers embarked on a deeply misguided eugenics movement to improve society by passing sterilization laws that were eventually supported by the US Supreme Court (1927 Buck vs. Bell case). They passed in 32 states and formed part of the rationale for Nazi Germany’s atrocities. This movement continued into the 1960s, with more than 60,000 Americans undergoing sterilization”(3).
One can see how wrong-headed the approach of forced sterilization can be when looking at genetic facts today. It is estimated that around 75% of the population of the US has at least a somewhat dirty MTHFR gene, giving less genetic ability to methylate at varying degrees depending on the number of SNPs one may have. With less-than-optimal methylation, a dirty MTHFR gene is often a loaded gun in determining the predictability of developing mental illness. If one were to follow the logic of sterilizing family members of those with mental illness (i.e., those with this gene marker), around 75% of the population would need to be so forced. And this just considers two genes on one chromosome. It does not account for all the other potential SNPs on the other parts of the chromosome. Not to mention, there are other genes on other chromosomes, like a fast COMT gene or a slow COMT gene, which give us proclivities toward mental illness as well. Everyone, for the most part, would be forced to sterilize.
The fact of the matter is that almost all illness, including mental illness, has two aspects to it. For example, many identical twins, who have the same genes, have schizophrenia, but not all. This is true of all the major mood issues as well. So, genetics tell part of the story; they are more likely. However, not all have the condition, so clearly there is an environmental aspect as well. This goes for proclivities to have a cold or the flu or anything as well: a tendency, but not in all cases.
AD 1799
Doctor’s Kill George Washington
George Washington died in 1799 from the bloodletting he received, along with some other bizarre treatments.
Speaking of George Washington, “Amazingly, round after round was aimed at this one man. Twice the young lieutenant’s horse was shot out from under him. Twice he grabbed another horse. Ten, fifteen, twenty rounds were fired by the sharpshooters… Washington also escaped flying bullets on four other occasions and survived contracting diphtheria, malaria, smallpox, and tuberculosis,”(11) but he could not survive his doctor’s treatments.
He had a slight flu and asked the doctors for help. If he had just gone to bed, he would have likely recovered. However, his doctors did several blood lettings and other bizarre treatments in an attempt to balance George’s humors, and eventually, they killed him.
19th Century
AD 1800-1899
Introduction
With the Christian awakenings that started first in England, primarily through the preaching of John Wesley and George Whitefield, and then later began in the U.S., Christians responded through many means. One way this took shape was a resurgence in building hospitals. Though it would be wrong to say there was a one-to-one cause and consequence, there is correlation, and the motivation seems evident to some. In any event, Christians were once again building hospitals, this time in America.
“In the nineteenth century hospitals in the United States became more common, especially after the Civil War. As the growth of hospitals spread across the nation, it was predominantly local churches and Christian denominations that built them. This was evidenced by many of the hospitals’ names. Most reflected their affiliation with a given Christian denomination or honored a Christian saint; hence, names such as Baptist Hospital, Lutheran Hospital, Methodist Hospital, and Presbyterian Hospital abound. Others were called St. John’s, St. Luke’s, St. Mary’s, St. Joseph’s, and so forth. The Christian identity and background of many American hospitals is now being erased, however. In recent years, as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have been purchasing more and more private Christian hospitals, their Christian names are being replaced. Thus, people, at least in America, will soon have no more symbolic reminders that the hospital(s) in their town or city had Christian origins”(6).
AD 1800 – 1900
Early Modern Nutrition
| First essential minerals identified:
| Iron → anemia
| Iodine → goiter
| Calcium → bones (This is really an erroneous assumption. Calcium alone makes bones more brittle not stronger).
| Phosphorus → energy
| Zinc → growth
| In 1838 – Lincoln was treated with mercury (today a known toxin) for his depression and this was commonplace, so the “toxic” minerals were only beginning to emerge
AD 1811
Iodine Isolated
Seaweed is naturally high in iodine, and some societies have used it for medicine from time to time over the years. It has been used in various ways and in different forms.
The story of the discovery of iodine is very ironic. A man named Bernard Courtois, who was a French chemist working in Dijon, France, in 1811, was trying to make saltpeter, a necessary ingredient in gunpowder, and wound up making iodine, a great medical breakthrough.
Author Lynne Farrow describes the story this way. While trying to make saltpeter for Napoleon, “One day Courtois ran out of the customary wood ash, so he acquired seaweed which was abundant on the shores of Normandy and Brittany. He burned seaweed in a copper vessel, and then accidentally poured too much sulfuric acid onto the ashes. Whoosh, a beautiful violet vapor emerged. The vapor crystallized into a luminous powder, the color of graphite”(12).
God is in control. He just is. There is no point in fighting it. Courtois suspected right away that he had discovered a new element. He was too poor to investigate, so he gave away what he had to various other chemists to examine. Thinking of himself as some sort of Renaissance man, Napoleon even allowed English chemists to come into France to help with this investigation.
As the investigations into what this new substance was, chemists were beginning to see its potential. “Two years later, Humphrey Davy sent a letter to the Royal Society of London naming the new element ioeides, the Greek word for violet”(12). Uses for this new iodine would soon be numerous. Iodine was the medicine of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. Doctors had a saying back in the day. The saying was this: When you don’t know what to do for a patient, give them iodine. It was used on everything from syphilis sores to freshening drinking water and helping with wound healing during the Civil War. Some even used it to help with tuberculosis.
AD 1802–87
Dorothea Dix
The reforms of mental health treatments continued with the efforts of Dorothea Dix. Motivated by the Gospel, she was determined to see better care for the mentally ill wherever she could affect a change. She successfully improved the care of the mentally ill so much that, Schmidt said, “The name Dorothea Dix became synonymous with enlightened care for persons with mental disorders for much of the nineteenth century.” According to Schmidt, she was also “resented by many physicians and ignored by many intellectuals,” but real changes were enacted, and she helped improve the lives of many people. To understand Dix better and what made her tick, listen to how Schmidt describes her.
“An avowed Christian who had daily morning devotions, Dix authored Meditations for Private Hours in 1828 and later wrote to John Greenleaf Whittier (the poet), saying that he had given her a ‘deeper conviction of the truths of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’ During the Civil War she went from one battlefield to another, directing nurses and assisting wounded and dying soldiers”(6)
Eventually the Spirt of Christ motivated Dix to turn her attention to the treatment of the mentally ill. She traveled around the country visiting many states. In so doing, she became shocked at the treatment given to those considered to be mentally insane.
“In one of her many appearances before state assemblies, she chided the Massachusetts State Legislature, which was reluctant to honor her requests for providing better facilities and care for the insane. Fearing rejection, she declared, ‘I dishonor you, divest you at once of Christianity.’ She also traveled to England and Scotland, promoting the same goals abroad as at home… But her most persistent and successful efforts… were in improving conditions and treatment for the insane in many American states”(6).
AD 1840
Claude Bernard
A physician named Claude Bernard of France predates Louis Pasteur by around 20 to 25 years, but many modern people have not heard of him. He is famous for saying the phrase, “The terrain is everything; the germ is nothing” (17). This was a huge statement about germs that predates anything Pasteur did and shows great wisdom and knowledge that we are still learning today in modern healthcare.
Despite the fact that Bernard may not have understood nutrients and beneficial bacteria, his statement shows a great deal of wisdom and understanding. He knew if the host was strong enough, disease would not happen.
AD 1841
Lincoln’s Treatment
The ideas of Benjamin Rush were likely very common at this point in history in the U.S. Throughout history, doctors and those dealing with the mentally ill did so through much ignorance. It should be noted that, despite having depression, Abraham Lincoln would still go on to become president of the United States.
“When Abraham Lincoln was severely depressed in January 1841, his physician Dr. Anson Henry subscribed to Rush’s aggressive theories and likely subjected the future president to these punishing treatments. After Lincoln spent a week alone with Dr. Henry, he described himself ‘as the most miserable man living’”(3).
AD 1848
Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis lived from July 1, 1818, to August 13, 1865
Semmelweis taught that doctors should wash their hands. His ideas were rejected in his day.
After thinking his way through and testing his way through the issue of childbed fever, which took the lives of countless children, he finally figured it out. In the year 1848, from March to August, no child died from childbed fever in Vienna, where he worked. Why? Ignaz insisted that all the doctors, midwives, and everyone in the care of the child wash their hands.
Not knowing what a germ was, he called the newly discovered problem he was washing away “cadaveric particles” or “cadaverous poison,” because the germ came mostly from touching dead bodies.
He was largely rejected by his peers, who laughed at the notion. He was locked up in a mental institute for various reasons, where he eventually died, ironically, of sepsis from a wound in his hand he suffered while in prison for what others called his insanity.
AD 1850
John Conolly Sees a 50% Recovery Rate of the Insane
A new light is beginning to dawn with the treatments of English Doctor John Conolly.
As a reformer of the treatment of the mentally ill, Doctor John Conolly, a Quaker, began treating without restraints, despite widespread opposition in England. In his determination to give better care to the “insane,” he unshackled them and brought a new approach which consisted primarily of three things: good food, civility, and good shelter. Armed with this basic approach, “In 1850 the English doctor John Conolly reported a fifty percent recovery rate”(13). He also effectively changed the accepted practices of mechanically restraining the mentally ill throughout the country.
The important thing to take away from Conolly’s success was his emphasis on good food, civility, and shelter.
Part of the reason was nutritional in nature. Consider a poor person who has a poor diet and develops psychosis eventually due to poor intake of key nutrients. No doubt, this could have contributed. However, perhaps a bigger part of his success was the huge relief from stress many of his patients experienced. Stress is a huge trigger for many in developing schizophrenia. Did removing some of the burden of stress on the patient make as much or more of an impact than nutrients? Of course, what Conolly did provided some of both.
Just think, if you were chained to a wall and fed gruel after having some sort of meltdown, and you had no hope at all, wouldn’t you be in a constant state of stress? What would you think if someone came to you and treated you with love and respect and unchained you, fed you good food, and helped you get moving again? Most would respond favorably and feel a sense of relief. We would effectively have less stress. No doubt, many would recover. He was revolutionary in his approach and a true genius. Today’s modern drug therapies are not even close to his levels of success.
AD 1857
Pasteur
Pasteur began to publish his findings about yeast and the fact that there were small, living organisms that existed. He learned from what others had written about ten years earlier, but now he began his own experiments.
In 1863, Napoleon asked Louis Pasteur to find out why some wine spoiled and some tasted good. Pasteur concluded that the yeast was responsible and suggested a heating process to kill off some of the yeast.
This process was never really followed for long, as it also destroyed the fermentation process and the grapes would never turn to wine.
Since Pasteur was a very influential scientist of his day, everyone would come to believe and follow his germ theory. Unfortunately, no one knew that his pasteurization of milk, and other things, would not only kill the bad germs but also that it removed much needed nutrients and beneficial bacteria as well.
AD 1867
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister began publishing a series of articles about the importance of doctors washing their hands in the Lancet Journal. He based his opinion in the light of the new evidence published by Pasteur. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis had just died in prison two years prior, in 1865, and was accused of being crazy. Now, the exact same idea was being accepted and adopted.
Dr. Lister would go on to become a famous doctor and had a world-renowned reputation.
AD 1870
White Rice and White Flour
White rice and white flour begin to become popular in the US. This process strips all of the nutrients out of the flour and rice. Nutrients hadn’t been discovered yet, so no one realized what they were doing.
The reason people in the 19th century used white rice and white flour was because you could put these into paper sacks and put them in the warehouse and the mice and rats wouldn’t eat them. They had no concept of what a nutrient really was.
This process still continues to this day, with a few vitamins now added back into the processed white rice and flour. Vitamin E is not added back, nor is a number of other important nutrients. Whole Wheat bread in the US has only a few grains of whole wheat in it and thus doesn’t provide significant nutritional value.
Vitamin E was never added back into flour or baked goods. Both whole grain rice and whole grain wheat are very good sources of vitamin E. Scientists didn’t see the need for this nutrient even though heart disease has increased from lack of this important nutrient.
AD 18?? – 1925
By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, white salt was now becoming more and more commonplace in the US. Sea Salt has all the minerals the human body needs in perfect proportion. Table salt has only Sodium and Chloride. And sometimes manufacturers make iodized salt that contains Sodium, Chloride, and some added Iodine. By 1925, white salt had almost completely replaced sea salt.
Little did they know that people need all the minerals in proportion to really be healthy. Doctors still don’t understand in August of 2026. Sea Salt has all the minerals the human body needs in perfect proportion because it was made by God. Man altered a perfectly good product to his detriment.
