Mark Twain once said he had little use for “those dull
people who think that nothing but medicines and doctors can cure the
sick”. Twain had what modern readers may
consider interesting views on which medicines and cures would help people
overcome their diseases. Twain advocated
for a total abstention from food for one or two days in order to cure any
disease. The changes that a mere hundred years have had on the way our society
views health, wellness, and nutrition are astounding and appear fascinating to
modern readers who possess a broader base of health related knowledge.
An experience that Mark Twain once had in Hawai’i was the
catalyst that ignited his later fervor for a self cure method of preventing
disease. Twain was in Honolulu when a
small boat carrying the survivors of a shipwreck reached port (Ober 207). The sailors had endured forty-three days in
an open boat that contained only a ten-day supply of food. While these men arrived in port weakened,
they were otherwise in excellent health.
Drawing upon what he saw, Twain reached the conclusion that would be his
guide for health related issues for the next fifteen years.
While the narration in “At the Appetite Cure” is in first
person from the point of view of the patient, the doctor, Professor Haimburger,
essentially plays the role of Mark Twain.
Haimburger, like Twain, witnessed an episode of a group of people who
where shipwrecked and forced to survive for weeks with inadequate food. While Twain only saw the survivors of a
wrecked ship arrive in port, Haimburger was a member of the shipwrecked
party. From their experiences, Twain and
Haimburger both concluded that food was not always necessary for a person to
survive, and that, in fact, starvation could be a healthy way to cleanse the
body of disease.
Twain claimed that starvation would weaken men
physically, but would, in fact cure all diseases of an “ordinary sort”
completely (Ober 207). This led Twain to
the conclusion that most diseases could be kept in check by starving them. To Twain this method was an ideal way to
manage sickness since it was one that could be applied easily and by anyone
without a medical professional or their guidance. He believed that starvation could “do more
the average sick man than can the best medicines and the best doctors”. Without the hassle of consulting a doctor,
Twain could embark on a self-prescribed cure which he believed would cure all
that ailed him.
The event that initiated Twain’s views on starvation are
easily traced to the survivors of the shipwreck, but according to K. Patrick
Ober, the mentality of of the decision could also be easily traced. Twain’s starvation theory was developed
during the time period when Andrew Jackson was president. During that time period, the prevailing mindset
was one of independence and the freedom of people to make their own decisions. This emphasis on little interference with a
person’s decision making was part of what guided Twain’s decision to seek a
method of medical treatment that he could self administer without outside
interference.
To Twain, this was not a mere belief or untested theory
that he held. He once wrote: “starvation
has been my cold and fever doctor for fifteen years, and has accomplished a
cure in all instances” (Ober 208). He
even recommended the cure to friends and family. In a letter written to Orion, his brother,
Twain explained “if [Orion] will stop eating - utterly, completely,
uncompromisingly- for two or three days, his cold will disappear, no matter
how strong or old a cold it is”.
Reaching out to the people about whom he cared most and encouraging them
to try the starvation cure to improve their health is evidence of just how much
Twain believed in the starvation cure; he was a strong enough believer in the
cure that he was willing to have his family try it without worry of any
negative consequences.
In addition to starvation as a method of curing sickness,
Twain had a view that differs vastly from current, conventional wisdom with
regards to unhealthy habits. While
bedridden with lumbago, Twain gave up, at his doctor’s urging, caffeine,
alcohol, and all food and drink except for water (Ober 210). After doing this, Twain was cured of the
lumbago. However, Twain’s interpretation
of this result was something that would not likely be consistent with current
medical theory. Twain advocated for the
continuation of bad habits so that they could be discarded at a later time when
one needed to give up something unhealthy so that one could once again become
healthy. This theory regarded bad habits as being akin to ballast; something
that could be disposed of later.
After being long entranced with the starvation cure,
Twain would discover the “mind cure”; a method of curing disease that involved
simply believing that what one did to try and cure a disease would actually
help (Ober 210). Twain’s belief that
the physical starvation was what resulted in the cure began to wane at this
point, however, Twain never lost faith in the treatment. Twain attributed some of the success of the
starvation cure to the same principle of the mind cure; that if he believed that
starving a cold would cure the disease, the starvation actually would cure his
cold. Since Twain believed that
the starvation cure would return him to health he felt that the treatment was
effective at curing colds simply because he believed it could.
Today, we view proper nutrition as something that is very
important to maintaining health. We are
taught that without eating a diet that is diverse and supplies all necessary
nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals, one cannot
achieve proper health. Twain’s views that
starvation was an effective means of curing disease seems contradictory to
present day health advice.
To a present day reader with knowledge of nutrition and
how the body works to fight disease, Mark Twain’s views on health and nutrition
differ vastly from what is currently thought to be the best cure for
diseases.
Ober,
K. Patrick. Mark Twain and Medicine:
“Any Mummery Will Cure”. Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 2003.
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