74. Proceedings of the Third Race Betterment Conference, January 2–6, 1928 (Battle Creek, MI: Race Betterment Foundation, 1928), pp. iii–xix.
75. Wilson, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, p. 160.
76. Letter from Irving Fisher to J. H. Kellogg, May 22, 1936, and Letter from Charles B. Davenport to Irving Fisher, May 18, 1936, Reel 4, Images 193–96, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M.
77. Letter from J. H. Kellogg to Irving Fisher, May 18, 1937, Reel 4, Images 833–36; Irving Fisher to J. H. Kellogg, May 28, 1937, Reel 4, Images 844–46, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M. In the latter letter, Fisher noted gleefully “how the Eugenics Society helped get through the restrictions on immigration on eugenics grounds,” referring to the Immigration Restriction Act and National Origins Act of 1924.
78. Letter from Harry Laughlin to J. H. Kellogg. December 19, 1941, Reel 5, Images 1409–10, quote is on image 1410, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M. For an account of the role Harry Laughlin played in public policy issues (especially immigration restriction), see Ludmerer, Genetics and American Society.
79. See, for example, T. H. Morgan, A. H. Sturtevant, H. J. Muller, and C. B. Bridges, The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1915); Raymond Pearl, Modes of Research in Genetics (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1915); Raymond Pearl, “The Biology of Superiority,” The American Mercury, 1927; 12: 257–66.
80. Comfort, The Science of Human Perfection; Daniel Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985); Ludmerer, Genetics and American Society, pp. 87–119; Mark Haller, Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1963); Ruth Schwarz Cowan, Heredity and Hope: The Case for Genetic Screening (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008); Stefan Kühl, For the Betterment of the Race: The Rise and Fall of the International Movement for Eugenics and Racial Hygiene (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); Paul Lombardo, A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011); Allen, “The Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, 1910–1940,” 1986; 2: 225–64; Garland E. Allen, “The Role of Experts in Scientific Controversy,” in Hugo Tristram Engelhardt and Arthur Leonard Caplan, eds., Scientific Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disputes in Science and Technology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 169–202.
81. After careful study of state laws regarding mandatory sterilization of the mentally ill and finding many to be badly written or easily challenged as unconstitutional, Laughlin designed a “model eugenical sterilization law,” which led to a number of programs and the sterilization of more than 64,000 mentally ill and disabled people well into the 1960s. See Harry H. Laughlin, Eugenical Sterilization in the United States (Chicago: Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal Court of Chicago, 1922).
82. Grand mal seizures, in modern medical parlance, are known as generalized tonic-clonic seizures. They are caused by abnormal electrical activity throughout the brain and are among the most severe seizures seen with epilepsy and brain injuries. Symptoms can include a loss of awareness or consciousness and striking, sudden, and involuntary muscular contractions. Phenytoin was synthesized in 1908 by a German chemist named Heinrich Biltz, who sold the rights to the drug to the Detroit pharmaceutical firm Parke-Davis. Its antiseizure properties were not elucidated until 1938 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its general use for the treatment of epilepsy in 1953. W. J. Friedlander, “Putnam, Merritt, and the Discovery of Dilantin,” Epilepsia, 1986; 27, Supplement 3: S1–20.
83. Letter from H. H. Laughlin to J. H. Kellogg, December 19, 1941, Reel 5, Image 1408, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M. Laughlin misspells the drug’s trade name as “dilltin” even though he meant “Dilantin,” which was manufactured by the Parke-Davis Company of Detroit.
84. Letter from J. H. Kellogg to Reginald Atwater, November 1, 1943, Reel 6, Images 78–82, quote is on image 81, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M.
85. Letter from J. H. Kellogg to Henry Vaughan, November 21, 1943, Reel 6, Images 84–87, the quote appears on Image 87, or page 4 of the letter. J. H. Kellogg Papers, Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.
86. “Kelley Files Race Betterment Suit,” Battle Creek Enquirer and News, April 18, 1967, pp. 1–2; “Fund Faces Charges of Wasting $687,000,” New York Times, April 19, 1967, p. 42; “Foundation Accused of Squandering,” Arizona Republic, April 19, 1967, p. 68; “Charge Foundation’s Funds Squandered,” Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1967, p. A1; “Foundation Wasted Funds, State Says,” Detroit Free Press, April 19, 1967, p. 10; “Says Foundation Squandered Half Million Dollars! Only $498 Left, Kelley Charges,” St. Joseph (Michigan) Herald-Press, April 18, 1967, p. 1; “Race Betterment Group Denies Squander Claims,” Battle Creek Enquirer and News, September 28, 1968, p. 2; Wilson, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, pp. 169–70. Some of the foundation’s money funded scholarships for children of two of the directors; another $200,000 was transferred to a “supposed non-profit entity” in Florida, and other assets were transferred to another director.
14.
A FULL PLATE
1. For a complete listing of all the doctor’s foods for sale and consumption, see Healthful Living: Fundamental Facts About Food and Feeding (Battle Creek, MI: Battle Creek Food Company, undated, circa 1925), Collections of the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine. A copy from the Michigan State University Archives can be found online at https://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/sliker/msuspcsbs_batc_battlecree10/msuspcsbs_batc_battlecree10.pdf.
2. J. H. Kellogg, “Health Principles,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 1, 1(12): 185–89, quote is from p. 189, the italics on the word “reform” is Kellogg’s. He delivered this address at the general conference on February 18, 1897.
3. J. H. Kellogg, The New Dietetics: A Guide to Scientific Feeding in Health and Disease (Battle Creek, MI: Modern Medicine Publishing Co., revised edition, 1923), p. 371. (First edition published in 1921.)
4. Ibid., pp. 382–83. This is not to say John Harvey Kellogg has singular claim to having invented peanut butter, per se. It has probably been around since the days of the ancient Aztecs. Contrary to popular belief, however, peanut butter was not invented by George Washington Carver, who cultivated peanuts and was a great advocate of peanuts, soybeans, and many other nuts and legumes. A Canadian chemist named Marcellus G. Edson patented a process to mill and make a peanut paste in October 21, 1884 (“Manufacture of Peanut-Candy,” U.S. Patent 306,727). This concoction, which included sugar, was said to have the consistency of lard.
5. U.S. National Peanut Board. “Fun Facts,” accessed July 7, 2015, at http://nationalpeanutboard.org/the-facts/fun-facts/.
6. For quote, see J. H. Kellogg’s testimony in the Supreme Court case, Kellogg v. Kellogg, State of Michigan Supreme Court Record, Volume 2, p. 369; in J. H. Kellogg, “Good and Bad Foods,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 5, 1899; 8(15): 151–52, he discusses peanut butter on p. 152. See also Schwarz, John Harvey Kellogg, pp. 120–21.
7. John Harvey Kellogg, U.S. Patents for peanut butter: “Food Compound” (U.S. Patent 567,901), application on November 4, 1895, and dated September 15, 1896; “Process for Preparing Nutmeal (U.S. Patent 580,787), application filed on November 4, 1895, and dated April 13, 1897; “Process of Producing Alimentary Products” (U.S. Patent 604,493), application filed on February 16, 1897, and dated May 24, 1898.
8. In 1922, Joseph Rosefield developed the process in which smooth peanut butter is made by keeping the oil from separating using partially hydrogenated oil. Rosefield sold the licensing rights to this process in 1928 to the Peter Pan Peanut Butter Company, and in 1932 made his own product under the brand name Skippy. For the history of this tangle of peanut primacy, see John E. Buchmeier, “A Sticky Subject,” Adventist Heritage, Fall 1992; 15(2): 16–17; Bernice Lowe, Tales of Battle Creek (Battle Creek, MI: Robert L. and Louise B. Miller Fo
undation, 1976), p. 81; “Who Really Invented Peanut Butter?” Battle Creek Enquirer, March 29, 1990; Jon Krampner, Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).
9. Powell, pp. 94–95.
10. Williamson Jr., An Intimate Glimpse, p. 25.
11. The name Malted Nuts was actually a play on another popular health drink, Malted Milk, which was concocted in 1887 by James and William Horlick. The Horlick brothers’ product, a mixture of malted barley, wheat flour, and evaporated whole milk, was widely sold as “a healthful, invigorating food drink for everybody, from infancy to old age.” “Horlick’s Malted Milk,” advertisement, circa 1906, Collections of the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine; Rima Apple, Mothers and Milk: A Social History of Infant Feeding, 1890–1950 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987); Richard Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality, 1850–1929 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).
12. Sanitas Nut Food Advertisement, “The Food That’s All Food. Delicious, Wholesome, Tempting. Prepared in many forms to suit many palates, One pound of Sanitas Nut Foods contains three times the combined nutriment, blood-making and flesh-building value of a pound each of BEEFSTEAK AND BREAD. The most easily digested food made. The perfect food for children. Assorted box of delicious Nut foods, 12 two-cent stamps. Our new Nut Food Booklet Free. Sanitas Nut Food Co., Ltd., 67 Washington St., Battle Creek, Mich,” Collections of the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine. See also Schwarz, John Harvey Kellogg, p. 121; J. H. Kellogg, “Nut Butter and Nut Meal,” Good Health, February 1896; 31(2): 56–57.
13. Clara Barton to the Sanitas Nut Food Company of Battle Creek, April 12, 1899, J. H. Kellogg Scrapbook, Volume 1, Box 16, J. H. Kellogg papers, U-M; Schwarz, John Harvey Kellogg, p. 121. An example of the Sanitas Nut Foods advertisements with Barton’s endorsement appears in The Vegetarian Magazine, February 1900; 4(5): 26. For biographical information on Barton and the American Red Cross, see Howard Markel, “Clara Barton’s Crusade to Bring the Red Cross to America,” PBS NewsHour, May 22, 2014, accessed April 23, 2016, at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/clara-barton-founding-american-red-cross/.
14. J. H. Kellogg, Life, Its Mysteries and Miracles: A Manual of Health Principles (Battle Creek, MI: Modern Medicine Publishing Co., 1910), p. 115.
15. Sanitarium Gluten Flour 44.81% Battle Creek Food Company advertisement, circa 1910, University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine; J. H. Kellogg. The New Dietetics, pp. 801–3.
16. Sativa, which came in the form of bouillon cubes, was also frequently prepared and served as a consommé soup. Advertisement, “Foods that Build Health can be Palate-Tempting,” Battle Creek Sanitarium Health Food, undated; “Good Eating for Health. 95 Delicious Recipes, 36 Appetizing Menus,” The Battle Creek Sanitarium Food Company, booklet, undated; “Recipes for Everybody,” Battle Creek Sanitarium Food, booklet, undated. Collections of the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine.
17. Moises Velasquez-Manoff, “The Myth of Big Bad Gluten,” New York Times, July 4, 2015, p. SR6.
18. J. H. Kellogg, The Health Question Box, or A Thousand and One Questions Answered (Battle Creek, MI: Modern Medicine Publishing Co., 2nd edition, 1920), pp. 859–60.
19. V. Vuskan, A. L. Jenkins, D. J. A. Jenkins, A. L. Rogovik, J. L. Sievenpiper, and E. Jovanovski, “Using Cereal to Increase Dietary Fiber Intake to the Recommended Level and the Effect of Fiber on Bowel Function in Healthy Persons Consuming North American Diets, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2008; 88(5): 1256–62.
20. J. W. Anderson, N. Zettwoch, T. Feldman, J. Tietyen-Clark, P. Oeltgen, and C. W. Bishop, “Cholesterol-Lowering Effects of Psyllium Hydrophilic Mucilloid for Hypercholesterolemic Men,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 1988 (February); 148(2): 292–96; H. Lipsky, M. Gloger, and W. H. Frishman, Dietary Fiber for Reducing Blood Cholesterol,” The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 1990 (August); 30(8): 699–703.
21. Harvey Cushing, The Life of Sir William Osler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1925), Volume 1, pp. 215–16.
22. See J. H. Kellogg, Autointoxication or Intestinal Toxemia (Battle Creek, MI: Modern Medicine Publishing Co., 1922, 3rd edition), pp. 30–48, 85–106, 306–13. Dr. Kellogg later chided Metchnikoff as someone who eats “a pound of meat and lets it rot in his colon and then drinks a pint of sour milk to disinfect it.” This meaty diet, the doctor asserted, caused Metchnikoff’s premature death at seventy-one years of age (p. 86). See also Élie Metchnikoff, The Nature of Man: Studies in Optimistic Philosophy, translated by Peter Chalmers Mitchell (New York: Putnam and Sons, 1903); Scott Podolsky, “Cultural Divergence: Élie Metchnikoff’s Bacillus bulgaricus Therapy and His Underlying Concept of Life,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1998; 72(1): 1–27.
23. A. S. Bloese Manuscript, p. 178a; No. 251, Box 1, Folder 14.
24. Alexandre Mikhailovich Besredka, translated by J. H. Kellogg, “Doctor Tissier and His Work at the Pasteur Institute,” reprinted from the Bulletin of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and Hospital Clinic, April 1929; 24(2): 73–82, Reel 40, Images 925–37, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M. John always gave the primary credit for discovering what we now call probiotics to Tissier, rather than Metchnikoff. On September 2, 1937, Kellogg wrote Tissier’s widow about the preparation of this paper, which he planned to present at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. “Dr. Tissier’s discovery has been of very great service to me and I want to make the world acquainted with the great services which he rendered,” Reel 4, Images 998–99, quote is from Image 998, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M.
25. At first, John enlisted a cohort of “old ladies” to help him make capsules containing acidophilus-rich sour milk, vinegar, and corn starch. Unfortunately, the vinegar destroyed the yogurt’s ability to ferment, thus rendering the pills medicinally useless for improving the intestinal flora. Nevertheless, for a brief period, the pills were hugely popular, thanks to a great deal of promotion in the doctor’s Good Health magazine. With each passing year, despite serving tons of acidophilus-spiked milk, yogurt, and cheese at the San, the doctor grew increasingly disenchanted with cow’s milk. “Cows’ milk is good for calves,” John advised to his patients in 1910, “but it is not really good food for human beings. “Lecture: Question Box Hour,” November 21, 1910, Reel 12, Images 192–223, quote is from Image 210, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M.
26. John extolled soybeans as especially useful for a diabetic’s diet. The New Method in Diabetes: The Practical Treatment of Diabetes as Conducted at the Battle Creek Sanitarium Adapted to Home Use, Based Upon the Treatment of More than Eleven Hundred Cases (Battle Creek, MI: Good Health Publishing Co., 1917), p. 65. His enthusiasm continued in subsequent editions of that work and he devoted four pages to soy, including a detailed discussion of tofu, in his 1920 omnibus volume, The Health Question Box, or A Thousand and One Questions Answered, pp. 350–53. One of his most popular books increased that coverage with seven pages discussing the joys of soy sauce, soy milk and soy sprouts; J. H. Kellogg, The New Dietetics, pp. 322–29. In the 1920s, Henry Ford ordered the farmers working for him to devote more than eight thousand acres of his farmland to growing soybeans. Although Ford expressed some interest in the nutritional aspect of soybeans, the butter, biscuits, meat substitutes, ice cream, and artificial dairy products his engineers produced simply did not taste all that good. Nor did the soy-based cloth his engineers produced yield much more than a collection of oddly textured neck ties Ford took to wearing. Instead, the auto magnate used the beans to develop paints, oil products, and plastics his factory fashioned into “the gearshift knobs, dash controls, door handles, window trim, accelerator pedals and horn buttons” for his automobiles. See Steven Watts, The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (New York: Vintage, 2006), pp. 483–86. See also William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, eds., Henry Ford and His Researchers: H
istory of Their Work with Soybeans, Soyfoods, and Chemurgy, 1928–2011: An Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook (Lafayette, CA: SoyInfo Center, 2011).
27. William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, “Dr. J. H. Kellogg and Battle Creek Foods: Work with Soy: A Chapter from the unpublished manuscript,” “History of Soybeans and Soyfoods, 1100 B.C. to the 1980s” (Copyright 2004, SoyInfo Center, Lafayette, California), accessed November 6, 2014, at http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/john_kellogg_and_battle_creek_foods.php.
28. “Soy Acidophilus Milk: The New Acidophilus Therapy, pamphlet, circa 1930s, The Battle Creek Food Co., Reel 40, Images 629–31, J. H. Kellogg Papers, U-M.
29. Howard Markel, “For the Welfare of Children: The Origins of the Partnership Between Public Health Workers and Pediatricians in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health, 2000; 90: 893–99.
30. Method for Making Acidophilus Milk, U.S. Patent 1,982,994, applied for June 13, 1933, issued on December 4, 1934.
31. Pierre Berton, The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama (New York: W. W. Norton, 1977). On page 159, there is a description of W. K. Kellogg driving six hundred miles to see them. Alexander Woollcott and Bette Davis went to see them, as did Amelia Earhart. The aviatrix saw them on April 23, 1937, five weeks before she vanished into thin air.
32. Two of the Dionne films, starring the venerable Jean Hersholt as a version of the Canadian doctor, are available on DVD: The Country Doctor, released by 20th Century Films, 1936 (Beverly Hills: Twentieth Century Fox Cinema Archives, DVD, 2014); Five of a Kind, released by 20th Century Fox in 1938 (Beverly Hills: Twentieth Century Fox Cinema Archives, DVD, 2012). A short film, Reunion, was made between these two motion pictures and was released in 1937 but is not available on DVD. See Paul Talbot, The Films of the Dionne Quintuplets (Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media, 2007); Willis Thorton, The Country Doctor, based on the 20th Century Fox Photoplay (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1936). See also A. J. Liebling and Harold Ross, “Miss Rand,” in Lillian Ross, The Fun of It: Stories from the Talk of the Town, The New Yorker (New York: Modern Library, 2001), pp. 89–90.
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