Elmer Lee

For the distiller, see Elmer T. Lee.

Elmer Lee
Portrait from Empire State Notables, 1914
Born(1856-03-12)March 12, 1856
Piqua, Ohio, U.S.
DiedJune 13, 1945(1945-06-13) (aged 89)
College Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Education
Occupations
  • Physician
  • magazine editor
  • activist
Known forNatural hygiene and vegetarianism advocacy
Notable workHealth Culture

Elmer Lee (March 12, 1856 – June 13, 1945) was an American physician, magazine editor, and advocate of natural hygiene and vegetarianism. He founded and edited the health magazine Health Culture, which promoted diet reform and plant-based foods. Lee also worked as a naturopath, wrote on disease treatment and diet, patented a liquid-soap dispenser, and promoted what he called the "hygienic system".

Biography

Early life and education

Elmer Lee was born in Ohio in 1856.[1] He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with an A.B. in 1877 and received an A.M. in 1880.[2] He then moved to St Louis, where he taught in public schools and worked in newspapers.[3]

Lee earned his M.D. from the Missouri Medical College, now the Washington University School of Medicine, in 1880, and his PhD from Saint Louis University in 1886.[2] He then moved to Chicago, where he lived for ten years.[3] Lee studied cholera in Germany and Russia, living for a time in Saint Petersburg.[4]

Career

Lee founded the health magazine Health Culture in 1894.[5] The magazine promoted a plant-based diet.[6] Lee edited it for 23 years,[3] before being succeeded by Arthur Vos.[7] The magazine continued publication until 1964.[8]: 504 

Lee moved to New York City in 1898.[3] He was acting Assistant Surgeon in the Spanish–American War.[1] On November 23, 1898, he testified before a commission investigating conduct in the war.[9] In 1902, Lee patented a reservoir for dispensing liquid soap.[10]

In 1908, Lee wrote an article in The New York Times proposing a "Hospital of Hygiene".[11] He began working as a naturopath in 1910 and developed a health movement known as the "hygienic system", influenced by Russell Trall.[12]

Diet advocacy

In 1910, The New York Times published an article titled "Dr. Lee pleads for better foods", in which Lee advocated a diet of "live organic plant-foods" and claimed that social problems, including drunkenness, resulted from inadequate nutrition.[13] John Davis has described this article as the first known use of the phrase "plant-foods" to describe a vegetarian diet.[14]

In 1910, Lee reprinted Rupert H. Wheldon's No Animal Food and Nutrition and Diet with Vegetable Recipes, an early British vegan recipe book. The edition included a statement by Lee that a "Plant diet with butter, cream, milk, cheese, eggs, lard, fat, suet, or tallow added to it, is not vegetarian; it is mixed diet; the same in effect as if meat were used."[14] Around 1921, Lee developed a plant milk made from oats and peanut meal.[8]: 236 

Lee served as vice-president of the American Academy of Medicine[15] and held offices in the American Medical Association and the American Social Science Association.[4] He was on the advisory committee of the American Super-Race Foundation[16] and worked as a lecturer for the New York Board of Education.[17]

Later life and death

Lee retired around 1935 and donated his medical books to Ohio Wesleyan University.[4] He died at Cincinnati Sanitarium in College Hill, Cincinnati, on June 13, 1945.[18]

Selected publications

  • Lee, E. (February 26, 1891). "Hydro-therapeutic Principles in the Treatment of Typhoid Fever". Medical Record. 53 (9). New York.
  • Lee, E. (September 1894). "The Treatment of Typhoid Fever". The American Journal of Dental Science. 28 (5): 223–228. PMC 6115018. PMID 30757396.
  • Lee, E. (October 1895). "Treatment of Asiatic Cholera". The American Journal of Dental Science. 29 (6): 250–258. PMC 6118763. PMID 30757708.
  • Lee, Elmer (August 1896). "Diphtheria and its Antitoxin". The Laryngoscope. 1 (2): 105–106. doi:10.1288/00005537-189608000-00011. S2CID 221920462.
  • Lee, Elmer (February 24, 1900). "Food and Drink" (PDF). JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. XXXIV (8): 465. doi:10.1001/jama.1900.24610080017001g. ISSN 0098-7484.
  • Lee in his laboratory making plant milk from chopped oats, ground peanuts, and water
  • Advert for Lee's Health Culture magazine
  • Lee promoting a vegan diet in 1911

References

  1. ^ a b Behncke, F. H. (1996). Pioneer Teachers. Health Research Books. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-0-7873-0087-6.
  2. ^ a b Alumni Directory of the Ohio Wesleyan University; 1846-1901. Delaware: Ohio Wesleyan University. 1902. p. 33.
  3. ^ a b c d "Who Remembers Him?". Piqua Daily Call. July 30, 1935. p. 4.
  4. ^ a b c Newdick, Anna (June 14, 1944). "Grad of 1877 Reviewed". The Ohio Wesleyan Transcript. Delaware, OH. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  5. ^ Adams, Aubrey Taylor (2014). Hygieia's Feast: The Making of America's Health Food Culture, 1870-1920 (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of California, Irvine.
  6. ^ Davis, John. "Hygiene cleans up - naturally of course". International Vegetarian Union. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  7. ^ Todd, Jan; Roark, Joe; Todd, Terry (March 1991). "A Briefly Annotated bibliography of English Language Serial Publications in the Field of Physical Culture" (PDF). Iron Game History. 1 (4–5): 26.
  8. ^ a b Shurtleff, William (2013). Aoyagi, Akiko; Shurtleff, William (eds.). History of Soymilk and Other Non-Dairy Milks (1226-2013): Including Infant Formulas, Calf Milk Replacers, Soy Creamers, Soy Shakes, Soy Smoothies, Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, Peanut Milk, Rice Milk, Sesame Milk, etc. Soyinfo Center. ISBN 978-1-928914-58-7.
  9. ^ Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1900. pp. 2305–2317.
  10. ^ US US708652A, Lee, Elmer, "Reservoir for dispensing liquid soap", published September 9, 1902, issued May 17, 1901 
  11. ^ Lee, Elmer (March 29, 1908). "Dr. Lee Would Found a Hospital of Hygiene". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  12. ^ Pizzorno, Joseph E.; Murray, Michael T., eds. (2012). Textbook of Natural Medicine. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4557-4014-7.
  13. ^ "Dr. Lee pleads for better foods; Insanity, Drunkenness, Immorality Are Some of the Results of Poor Food, He Declares. Wants Clean, Liberal Diet and Health, Strength, Refinement, and Other Estimable Attributes Will Follow" (PDF). The New York Times. November 6, 1910. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  14. ^ a b Davis, John (2011). "A History of Veganism from 1806" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on February 23, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  15. ^ "Expert's Declaration on Cooking Evokes Various Comments". The Charlotte News. October 7, 1912. p. 7.
  16. ^ The American Super-Race Foundation; an organization preparing the way for the selection and education of superior human beings, each race separately, for the evolvement of a super race. New York City—Rochester, New York: American Super-Race Foundation. 1923. p. 12.
  17. ^ "Oatmeal and Beefsteak". The Bulletin of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. XXXI: 162. January 15, 1927.
  18. ^ "Ex-Piquad Gives Entire Estate to Ohio Wesleyan U". Piqua Daily Call. July 26, 1945. pp. 14.
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